Page 167 - Apologetics Student Textbook

Bethlehem is connected to Jerusalem since BOTH are the city of David. David was born in Bethlehem
and reigned in Jerusalem. Jesus, David’s promised son, was born in Bethlehem and will reign in
Jerusalem.

John 1:29 “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

I Peter 1: 18-19 “knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers,
not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb
without blemish or spot.”

I Cor. 5:7 Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.”

Does it matter when Jesus was born?
It’s obvious that the gospel writers didn’t think it was too important to communicate the day that Jesus
was born. In fact, we don’t see a lot of attention paid to Christ’s birth in the first couple centuries. Paul
doesn’t talk about it, and we don’t see a lot of interest from early church fathers through the second
century.

Jesus’ death and resurrection are another matter entirely—the gospels offer important details around
Christ’s death. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all place the crucifixion adjacent to Passover. And it was
important for them to communicate to us that he was raised in three days. It was also important that
Jesus died on Passover and was sacrificed on the cross at the same time the lambs were sacrificed for
the Passover meal. He was buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the day after Passover, and He
rose again on the Feast of First Fruits, three days after Passover. The Holy Spirit gave birth to the Church
fifty days later on the exact day of the Feast of Pentecost. Every God event was on the exact day of the
Feasts commanded by God in Leviticus 23. I’m sure that significant detail is important when it comes to
future events planned by God.

Communicating the timing of Jesus’ birth just wasn’t the priority for biblical writers like the death and
resurrection were, and that should help us to emphasize it accurately.

The church has been memorializing the incarnation for nearly 2,000 years, and for the most part it’s
been with complete knowledge that we can’t know for sure the date that Jesus was born—and that’s
fine. Christmas celebrates the fact that Jesus took on flesh and entered our existence as an infant. We
don’t need to know the exact date this happened to observe this remarkable event! We can only guess.

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