Gospel of Luke Lesson 3
Chapter 2
Luke began his Gospel by telling about the circumstances surrounding supernatural announcements about the births of John first and then Jesus. We finished the first chapter having witnessed the arrival of John and the supernatural events that attended his birth. We open the second chapter with the next expected event—the birth of Jesus and the supernatural events that attended His birth. The stories of John and Jesus are interwoven from the beginning.
The Birth of Jesus—Luke 2:1-20
One of the signals that the Bible is true is found in the historical and cultural details related in its pages. These events happened in a real time and in a real place and there were witnesses who could be relied upon to support the claims. Augustus is a very well known figure of history who established and ruled the Roman Empire from 27 BC to AD 14. The census that Luke mentions in this section is different from the census mentioned in Acts 5:37; that one occurred in AD 6 and resulted in a short-lived rebellion. This census may have been spurred in part by Herod’s increasingly erratic behavior in Judea.
Quirinius is also a well-known figure in history and is known to have been active in Syria well before his official governorship AD 6-9. He was a high official and likely would have been entrusted to execute Imperial orders. No records of this census exist, yet there is evidence for very similar programs periodically conducted in Egypt which required people to return to their home towns. At any rate, Joseph took Mary from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem, his home town, just as her pregnancy was nearing conclusion. And the baby was born.
The manger in which Jesus was laid was a stone box for feeding animals, likely sheep in this case. The “inn” was likely a hollowed-out cave with floor space near the door for travelers—but since there was no room, Mary and Joseph would have been pressed back to the wall far from fresh air and in the area where animals would typically be kept.
In the countryside nearby, shepherds were pasturing their sheep for the night—a highly unusual circumstance that may have been demanded because so many travelers arrived for the census. The normal sheep caves were likely emptied to make room to shelter the travelers. It is to these shepherds that the angel appeared to announce “good news,” the “evangel.” Their immediate and understandable response is terror, but the angel reassured them that this is news of great joy. In words that mimicked the announcement of Augustus’ Imperial reign, the angel announced the coming of the Messiah, Christ the Lord. He also announced a confirming sign: a baby in a manger. Then this angel was joined by a heavenly chorus who sang the praises of God and slowly ascended.
The shepherds quickly made their way into Bethlehem and found the situation as they had been told. They told their story to general amazement, but Mary carefully kept and pondered these things. The shepherds made their way back to the sheep, praising God for all they had seen.
Jesus Presented in the Temple—Luke 2:21-40
On the eighth day after
birth, baby boys were to be circumcised and formally named. This was done in
Jesus’ case and He was given the name that had been announced to Mary so many
months before—Jesus (1:31). The name is a Greek form of Joshua, which is
translated to mean “God saves.” It is likely that this took place in Bethlehem;
there would be no reason to travel and
Mary was not yet ceremonially purified to enter the Temple precincts. That took a full 40 days after a baby boy’s birth. At that time, the parents were to present offerings to the priest, according to the Law in Leviticus 12. An offering of a lamb and a dove was to be made; if the parents could not afford a lamb, two doves could be substituted. The fact that Joseph and Mary provided two doves tends to indicate that they were not people of any substantial means.
Within the Temple precincts, a man named Simeon encountered the family. The Scripture does not say he was a constant attendee to the Temple, but it plainly says he was gifted by the Holy Spirit and had been told that he would see the Messiah before his own death. Luke tells us that it was at the prompting of the Holy Spirit that Simeon went to the Temple that day and found the baby Jesus. He immediately praised God and declared that he could die in peace since he had seen the Salvation of the Lord. Joseph and Mary were understandably amazed, but Simeon was not finished—he went on to tell them something about the future and Mary’s own part to suffer.
Immediately they were joined by a woman of 84 named Anna who was a well-known and well-respected prophetess. She also thanked God for that day and began to tell everybody around them about the redemption that God was already bringing about in this child. It is striking that Deuteronomy 19:15 demands that every matter be established at the mouth of two or three witnesses and God provided Himself with two witnesses to indicate the truth of this startling announcement.
Luke omits the visit of the Magi and their gifts, but it seems clear that they must have arrived some little while after this event. Otherwise, the parents, possessed of gold, myrrh and frankincense, would have offered a lamb instead of the alternative dove. Likewise, the flight to Egypt is not recorded by Luke. He glosses over the intervening time and merely reports that the young family made their way back to Nazareth in Galilee. The child Jesus grew as other children grow. God’s grace was on Him, but He did not seem notably different now.
Jesus In the Temple—Luke 2:41-52
The Feast of Passover is an annual reminder of God’s deliverance from Egypt in the Exodus. It is the most religious celebration in the Jewish calendar and crowds of pilgrims would stream into Jerusalem every year. It was the custom of Joseph and Mary to attend and so they came year by year. In the year that Jesus was 12, the family came as usual and after the festival started for home in a large company of friends and relatives. At the end of the first travel day, when all the young people would return to their own families for the night, Joseph and Mary discovered that Jesus was not in the company of travelers. After an anxious night, they spent the next day returning to Jerusalem to search for Him. They found Him on the third day in the Temple area, talking with the teachers of the Law and asking them questions. The teachers were impressed with His insight!
Mary was upset and demanded to know why He had caused them such anxiety. His response was respectful but puzzled—they should have known that they would find Him in His Father’s house. This left them confused, but He obediently went with them back to Nazareth. All of these things accumulated in Mary’s heart and mind and she considered them. The final verse of this chapter is very similar to the statement in 1 Samuel 2:26 about the development of the young prophet and priest and ruler who served at the end of the period of Judges and ushered in a new monarchy among the people of God.