The First Christmas:
Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How
By Lori Lynch
What Christmas commemorates is fundamental to the Christian faith. At the same time, it’s not just for Christians, Westerners, or sellers who want to make a few extra bucks. It affects everyone on the face of the earth, and understanding what it means can radically change the way you live and see life.
To understand the story of the first Christmas, it’s important to know a bit of background information.
The story starts when God created everything. The Bible says He made land, plants, trees, the sun and moon, animals, and humans. (See Genesis 1.) It also tells us that He made angels, heavenly beings that do His bidding in the unseen world of the spirit (Colossians 1:15–16). Everything was perfect. No one sinned or did evil.
Unfortunately, Lucifer, one of the angels God created, rebelled against God because he wanted to be God himself (Isaiah 14:12–14). He became the Devil (also known as Satan) and got busy trying to ruin God’s work and plan. He tricked the first two humans God made, Adam and Eve, into allowing sin into the world. Humanity and even creation itself changed. There was a division between God and humanity, as God is perfect and humans no longer were.
God, however, already knew that this would happen. Even as He punished Adam and Eve for their disobedience, He said that a redeemer or savior would one day come to undo the consequences of their actions. (See Genesis 3.)
Thousands of years later, God spoke to a man called Abraham1 and called him and his descendants to worship only Him. It was a radical notion at a time when people worshipped a range of animate and inanimate objects. But Abraham remained true to the one true God. His descendants, the Israelites, eventually settled in the land we now call Israel. (See Genesis 11:27–25:11.) The Israelites obeyed God at times and disobeyed Him at others; even so, they kept records of God’s messages given to prophets, people who were filled with God’s Spirit and wrote down what God told them. These messages included “clues” regarding what the coming Savior would be like. One prophet foretold that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem, a small town in Israel (Micah 5:2). Another said His mother would be a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), and that He would preach good news to the poor, free the captives, and heal the sick (Isaiah 61:1).
Around 4 BC, God finally put His plan into action. He sent one of His angels to a young woman called Mary. She was a virgin but she was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph. The angel, named Gabriel, told Mary that she would immediately become pregnant and have a son. The angel explained that her child, Jesus, would be God’s son and would save the people from their sins. Mary’s fiancé, Joseph, was upset and confused when he found out Mary was pregnant, as he knew he wasn’t the father, but God sent an angel to talk to him and tell him the baby was conceived by God Himself. Joseph breathed a sigh of relief and married Mary as the angel had commanded him. (See Luke 1:26–35, Matthew 1:18–25.)
Now, Joseph and Mary lived in a town called Nazareth, in northern Israel. Most people rarely traveled at this point in time. However, the emperor ordered everyone back to their hometown for a census to ensure each person in his realm was paying taxes. Joseph, whose family was originally from Bethlehem, traveled back to that town with his wife, Mary. Once they arrived, they could not find a place to stay. Popular culture typically depicts the couple being turned away from multiple inns before finding shelter in a remote stable; however, Bethlehem was so small that it most likely didn’t even have inns. Estimates vary, but experts say the town was only about 760 square meters in size and had no more than 3,000 people living in it.2 It’s probable that relatives took the couple in but didn’t have space to offer them a room. Rather, Joseph and Mary were put up in a space off the side of the main room of the home where animals were kept for the night.3 This stable is where Jesus was born into the world.
The Bible then tells us that an angel appeared to a group of shepherds who were out watching sheep on a nearby hillside. The shepherds were terrified, but the angel told them not to be afraid. “The Savior of the world has been born tonight!” the angel proclaimed, telling the shepherds they would find Jesus wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger. The shepherds then went to Bethlehem looking for Jesus. Once they found Him, they worshipped Him and then told the entire town about what they’d heard and seen that night. People were amazed, but there is no record of anyone else in the town coming out to see Jesus for themselves. (See Luke 2:1–20.)
However, a group of men living outside of Israel did pay Jesus a visit after His birth. The three kings, or three wise men as they are also known, are often depicted as part of the manger scene. But it is likely that some time had passed, what many scholars believe may be up to two years, before the wise men arrived. The Bible tells us that they saw an unusual star in the sky when Jesus was born. Like many people of that time period, they believed that the out-of-the-ordinary “sign in the heavens” meant something; in this instance, the birth of a new king of Israel. Thus, they started traveling to see him. At some point in the journey, or perhaps even beforehand, they realized that they weren’t just going to see royalty. The Bible tells us that at the end of the journey, when the star appeared directly over the house where Joseph and Mary were staying, the wise men not only gave Jesus gifts but also worshipped Him. (See Matthew 2:1–12.)
There’s a lot about the Christmas story that can seem fantastical. Angels, unusual stars, and virgins having babies are certainly not common occurrences. But historical evidence outside the Bible tells us that Jesus was a real person who lived in the first century.4 What’s more, His mission makes perfect sense when we understand the original context. God is just, holy, and perfect, but also merciful. The Bible says He is love itself (1 John 4:8). He can’t accept sin in His presence but wanted to close the gap between us and Him. He doesn’t want us to suffer punishment for our sins even though we deserve to do so. That’s why Jesus came to earth. Jesus lived a perfect life, and His death paid the price for our sins. That’s why billions of people the world over, on December 25, celebrate the fact that “to us a child is born, to us a son is given. … And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
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