That not what happened in the movie...

Let’s start simple. Luke 2. But let’s also set aside any notion or preunderstanding that you have of Luke 2. Put away the images you have in your mind from some children's movie and read the text with me.

Luke 2:1-5

Luke 2:1–5 CSB

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. This first registration took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So everyone went to be registered, each to his own town. Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David, to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant.

So Please understand. I don’t want you picturing something from a cartoon you watched as a kid. This is not Mary and Joseph and the donkey traveling alone across the desert at night. That’s not what happened. This is a census of the entire roman empire. And Mary and Joseph are traveling with their entire family in a large caravan of people to Josephs home town. They are surrounded by family making this trip. But it gets better

Luke 2:6 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

WHILE THEY WERE THERE. They are not coasting into town, middle of the night, Mary’s water broke on the edge of town and she’s in labor as the look for a hotel. That’s not what happened. This census required everyone in the roman empire to move to their home town for a couple of years while the did the counting. Mary and Joseph had been there for probably weeks by the time she gives birth. Read on.

Luke 2:7 Then she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

Now, if they’ve been there for a whole little while, a few weeks, Joseph and all his brothers and cousins descending upon some relatives house, what in the world are they doing delivering a baby in the barn.

Based on the customs of the day, there would have been a whole mess of relatives staying at one house during this census. Houses were modified and poorly build guest rooms were constructed by just throwing up a wall inside the house or making a quick addition to the outside, but still, at this point Mary would be sleeping in a room on the floor with all the other unmarried young women and Joseph in a separate room. But when 6 girls are sharing a room and one of them needs to give birth, you don’t give birth in the communal sleeping quarters. Childbirth is messy and loud. Take that mess somewhere else. Don’t get afterbirth in my sleeping space.

So there is not room in the guest room for the spreading out and running around that child birth requires. But afterwards, they came back inside. They probably got a new guest room wall thrown up so that Mary could sleep with her husband and child now, rather than with the little girls.

But just to get the baby off the floor in all this craziness with so many people in the house; the put Jesus in a feeding trough so nobody would step on him and so Mary could rest after childbirth.

Also, as a side note, this picture that we have of the nativity where Joseph delivers the baby himself out in the barn…completely absurd. It did not happen. They are there with all the women in Bethlehem, aunties, and sisters, and cousins, and grandmamas. There is absolutely no way that they let the father deliver that baby. That’s not the way things were done. Every woman in the family helped but traditionally the primary responsibility here would have fallen to Joseph’s mothers sisters. Because a man ain’t delivering no baby. The expectant grandmother is too emotional at that point. But Josephs aunties have just enough vested interest in taking care of her, and just enough distance from her to not get too emotional.

My mama’s sisters threw ashleigh a bridal shower last weekend. Can you imagine them delivering your firstborn child at home instead of a hospital? You trust Julie and Jessica with that?

Luke 2:8-9 So, one, this is weird because there’s only a couple times when there’s this many angels in one place at one time. But also, please don’t picture this.

Luke 2:10 But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Ok. So not all angels look the same. There are some competing descriptions in the Bible. But this does not line up with any of them. The halo is an invention of medieval art. I don’t know what the angels looked like, but this aint it. These guys were scary looking. And I think we’re going to see why from a different vantage point on this story.

Luke 2:11-12 Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.”

Luke 2:8–20 CSB

In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.” Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors! When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” They hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger. After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told.

So all of this is one angle, one vantage point on the birth of Christ. But this is only one angle. This is not the only angle.