The humble circumstances of Jesus’ birth and childhood are utterly surprising and counterintuitive. Just as the very concept of God becoming a baby is perplexing and even shocking, so too is the setting that God chose for his entrance into our world.
In the first century, a person’s greatness was displayed through outward symbols of success and wealth. The nobility of Israel lived in grand houses, wore fine clothes and had servants to undertake the menial tasks of their lives. Prosperity was considered a sign of God’s favour and so the upper classes wore their wealth like a badge of honour, flaunting it before the populace to demonstrate their God-ordained superiority. Humility was not an esteemed value among the upper classes. If God had caused you to be born into the ruling class of society, you should be proud of it and display your superiority for all to see.
This is not to say that humility was not an esteemed valued in the first century. It was – but only for the lower classes. Humility was the appropriate attitude of those who were not blessed by God. Humility kept them in their proper place and helped maintain the orderly, hierarchical structure of society.
The humble circumstances of Jesus’ birth and early life, however, radically overturn all these cultural mores. When God the Son, the Creator of the universe and our Lord and King, entered our world as one of us, he did not come as a powerful prince born in a palace and surrounded by the outward trappings of wealth and status. He was not born to parents of nobility, but to a seemingly impoverished young couple of obscurity. Their relative poverty is indicated by the offering they gave at the temple as a thanksgiving for his birth. The Torah dictated that a newborn child was to be dedicated at the temple on the eighth day after the birth with an offering of a year-old lamb (Leviticus 12:6). However, if the parents were too poor to offer a lamb, the Torah made a concession that they could sacrifice one or two pigeons or doves (Leviticus 12:6). Thus, Luke 2:24 states that Mary and Joseph offered two doves at the temple dedication for the baby Jesus: an indication of their poverty (being unable to offer a lamb) but also of their religious devotion (offering two doves rather than just the minimum one).
But this is only the beginning of Jesus’ humble circumstances. He was conceived out of wedlock! Of course, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke provide the explanation for this, revealing that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit while Mary was still a virgin, but very few people back then would have believed this. In their minds, it was just a story concocted by Mary and Joseph to cover their sin. Thus, the stigma of illegitimacy would have hung over Jesus throughout his entire life.
Then there are the humble circumstances of his birth. He was not born in a palace befitting a king, but in a smelly animal shed and cradled in a feeding trough. Following this ignoble beginning, part of his infancy was then spent in Egypt as a refugee, after Mary and Joseph fled from the assassination attempt by Herod. When they eventually returned to Israel, their discovery that the new King, Herod’s son, Archelaus, was also searching for Jesus in order to kill him caused them to settle in Mary’s home village.
Today, Nazareth is well-known because it was the place of Jesus’ childhood, but in the first century, it was a tiny, remote village of subsistence farmers in a mountainous region of Galilee. By the time of Jesus, the Jewish scribes had listed in the Talmud the sixty-three main towns and villages of Galilee – a kind of traveller’s guide to the northern province of Israel – and Nazareth was so small it didn’t even rate a mention! Archaeologists estimate that fewer than two hundred people lived there at the time of Jesus. The lowly status of Nazareth was, in fact, a standing joke to the wealthier nobility who lived in the southern province of Judea. Thus, we read that Nathaniel, one of the first of Jesus’ disciples, initially responded in surprise when he learnt of Jesus’ background:
“Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
Jesus’ very basic, agricultural childhood in that village is evident in the parables he later told. Fig trees and grapevines, crops and weeds, wheat and chaff, sheep and goats, and fields white unto harvest – these were all simple daily images of the basic subsistence living that Jesus grew up with.
As well as the lowly status of the village of Nazareth, the whole northern province of Galilee was considered to be socially and culturally backward compared to the sophisticated southern province of Judea where almost all the nobility lived. Galilee was characterised by subsistence living and low literacy. Galileans also had a coarser accent and spoke with a grammatically unrefined dialect of Aramaic when compared to their southern counterparts. Thus, we find someone saying to Peter as he was attempting to hide in the crowd in the high priest’s courtyard after Jesus’ arrest, “Surely you are one of his disciples, for your accent gives you away.” (Matthew 26:73). The disparagement with which Galilee was generally regarded by those in the south is evident in the response of some people in Jerusalem when they first heard Jesus preaching; “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? … Look into it and you will see that no prophet has ever come out of Galilee!” (John 7:42,52).
Not only was Jesus from Galilee, but he also intentionally chose eleven of the twelve disciples from there as well. (The only disciple who came from Judea was Judas Iscariot, the one who would eventually betray Jesus). This would have made Jesus and his disciples a laughing stock among the rabbis of his day.
With all this in mind, consider the following fictional dialogue between God the Father and an angelic Heavenly Event Manager:
Heavenly Event Manager: “Lord, I have made all the necessary preparations for your Son’s entry into the world of humans. For his parents, I have selected a young couple from the nobility of Israel. The husband sits on the Sanhedrin and is one of the most influential leaders of the nation.”
GOD: “No. He is to be born into a carpenter’s family.”
Heavenly Event Manager: “A carpenter, Lord? I see …” He consults a large book in his hands. “In that case I have a list of the finest carpenters in Jerusalem. Ah yes, here is one who is the most respected in the land, a carpenter to princes and …”
GOD: “No. He is to be born into the family of Joseph bar Jacob, an unknown carpenter from the village of Nazareth.”
Heavenly Event Manager: “Nazareth, my Lord? I don’t even know where that is.” He quickly consults another book. “Oh, I see, here it is. Yes … um … somewhat lacking in sophistication befitting your Son … but as you wish.” Frowning, he opens another register. “Now, as to the location of his actual birth, I note that the prophecies point to Bethlehem. I have a list of the finest hotels in Bethlehem. The one I particularly recommend is …”
GOD: “My Son is to be born in an animal stable, on the outskirts of the town.”
Heavenly Event Manager: “Um … I see … In that case I will have to re-write the invitations to those who are to witness the event. I have a large list of the most prominent people in Israel and …”
GOD: “No. Cancel all those invitations. There will be no nobility present at his birth. The birth will be witnessed by his parents and the animals in the stable. You may invite a handful of shepherds to visit the baby soon after he is born, and, several months later, some Gentile philosophers from Persia may also visit him. That is the extent of the guest list.”
Heavenly Event Manager: (Now completely puzzled) “Er … as you wish, my Lord. Now as to the birth concert. The angelic choir have been practising for months and I can assure you they sound … um … angelic. I’ve arranged for a spectacular accompanying light show as well, including a new star. I have booked the world tour and the venues are all confirmed. The choir will be appearing in every major city around the world on the night of the birth, and I can assure you that it will be a concert that will be …”
GOD: “Cancel the world tour. The choir will make one appearance only. To a group of shepherds sitting guard over their sheep in a field near Bethlehem. That is all.”
The incredibly humble circumstances of Jesus’ birth and upbringing cannot be underestimated. Nor should they be dismissed as inconsequential. This was no accident. When the Son of God came into our world, he deliberately chose the lowest possible circumstances of his birth and the least impressive station in life – an impoverished family from an obscure subsistence village in a backward province of an enslaved nation. You couldn’t get any lower than that!
We must see this for what it was back then and still is today: a stunning rejection of the world’s concept of greatness. Jesus’ humble origins were a deliberate and powerful demonstration that true greatness is not measured by the superficial externalities that the world finds appealing. God is not impressed by wealth or positional status, and he condemns the vain self-aggrandisement of those who elevate themselves higher than others. The intentional choice of such lowly circumstances for the incarnate Son of God was more than God merely identifying with and showing his concern for the poor; it represented a complete rejection of the world’s pretence and pride. It was a powerful declaration of the foundational importance of humility in the kingdom of God.
Surprisingly, the birth of God into our world, without doubt the most significant event in all human history, is recorded and described by just a single verse in only one of the Gospels:
“And she [Mary] gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger [feeding trough] because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)
That’s it! It’s the only description of this extraordinary moment in the whole Bible. A single verse in just one Gospel! Yet this simple, understated verse beautifully captures the radical, upside-down values of God’s kingdom; values which underpin all that Jesus would go on to say and do.