Stroll through Scripture for Christmas Eve, 2025

Based on Luke 2:1-20

The story is so very familiar.  Which can be a wonderful thing and a challenge.  It’s wonderful in that people know the story, or at least some variation of it.  It’s the birth narrative.  Even in our culture, where Christmas is often highjacked by consumerism, people know the essence of the story.  Usually what happens is that people combine details of Luke and Matthew’s accounts of the birth narrative.  

The challenge is also that people know the story.  Which often means it’s difficult for folks to listen to what is actually being said and to pay attention to the fine details.  

Here’s a few of the details that are easy to pass over.  The “registration”, or some translations will say “census.”  The purpose of the registration was simple – an empire required accurate taxation records, and what is going on in the conquered territories.  People were required to register at their ancestral home to verify property and family lineage.  It also helped to discover how many able-bodied men were available for the military in case they were needed.  

The manger was either a barn or a cave – somewhere that animals resided.  It was messy location, full of straw and manure.  Hardly a sanitary or comfortable situation for giving birth.  

The innkeeper, who isn’t specifically mentioned in Luke’s version is often portrayed as a bad guy because he wouldn’t open a room for Mary and Joseph.  Instead, they are told there is no room at the inn.  And why?  Because of the registration going on.  The innkeeper isn’t so much as a bad guy as someone else who is stuck in a sinful system.  Empires never have enough room for everyone.  They just consume, consume, consume.  There is never enough, despite the high promises that empires make about glory and greatness and never-ending power.  And then there is reality – because of the registration, people were traveling outside of the normal routine.  And because of that, there was no room.  And in such systems, everyone suffers as a result, and it often feels like there is no escape.  It’s designed to feel that way.  Empires want people to feel like there are no other options.  

And during all of that and more, Jesus is born.  Not in a place of power, but in a broken and abusive system.  Jesus is born in poverty and mess.  Jesus is born and the first people who hear about it are the shepherds – the people at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.  But what better way to have actual Good News.  Good News is not about maintaining abusive systems that dehumanize people and extract everything of value from people.  Good News is a declaration that all of it is ending and there is a new way that is starting.  That is what we celebrate with the birth of Christ. 

Questions for further reflection:

• What are the systems that we are caught up in that we feel we can do nothing about?
• What would be Good News for us today in 2025?