In the last post we saw no sign of the manger, but we did discover the wise men and what Jesus did in ministry. Like the wise men, we are searching for the Christ Child in the manger. Let’s see what the other two Gospels contain.
The Gospel of Luke
Birth stories
Let’s look at the Gospel of Luke. The first chapter is filled with baby stories. Here we read early childhood stories of John the Baptist and Jesus, even stories from before they were born.
Mary
In Luke we hear from Mary, the mother of Jesus. In Matthew we heard about Joseph.
Joseph and Mary
Check out chapter two. Do you see Joseph and Mary arriving in Bethlehem?
We’ve found the manger!
Keep reading. Look who else is arriving.
The shepherds and the angels.
We’ve located the rest of them in Luke.
The manger
So how do we remember that the manger is in Luke’s gospel?
Well, when I was a kid, every year we would watch a Christmas Special. Near the end of the special, a boy with a blanket would walk onto the stage of a Christmas Pageant and tell the story of the birth of Jesus, the nativity story.
You might have seen it too.
The story told by Linus is in Luke.
The Gospel of John
If we’ve found the manger in Luke, do we need to keep looking?
Yes. We’ve come this far. Join me as we glance at the Gospel of John.
In the beginning was the Word
The first chapter of John starts very differently from the rest of the Gospels. When I first started reading the Bible, John’s gospel was confusing to me. I didn’t understand what he meant by the Word. I liked the words “life” and “light” but the rest didn’t make much sense to me.
John the Baptist
The first name we see is John. John the Baptist, not John, the author of the book or Gospel of John. Jesus doesn’t arrive in chapter one until John’s testimony. Or does He?
Jesus
Did you notice verse 14?
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…” John 1:14a NIV
That’s Jesus. Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the light.
We may have located the manger in Luke, but here we see the gift revealed. Jesus come to earth in the flesh to dwell among us.
John’s gospel reveals the gift. John reveals Jesus.