The Gospel of the Day – 2017.01.01
The Three Shepherds
The
shepherds hurried away to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby
lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been
told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds
had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in
her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they
had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.
When
the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name
Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception
Propaganda
There
is a lot packed into this short passage.
Before
we begin to explicate its meaning we must understand that, Luke the Apostle, he
never met Jesus. Luke was not one of the disciples. Luke was a protégé of Paul,
and Paul had never met Jesus either.
Luke
and Paul, travelled broadly and met many of those that had followed Jesus
during his life. Paul met with James, who was Jesus’ brother, but they never
met Jesus, and everything they knew about Jesus was heresay.
It
is also important to note, that while the Gospel of Luke bears Luke’s name, it
was not written by Luke. None of the Gospels were written by individuals, that
were exercises in collective development, and the writing of them took place
over generations, as the communities who authored them did their best to
narrate their understanding of the life and mission of Jesus in terms their
audience would understand.
The
Gospel of Luke says that Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus were visited by three
shepherds. This is presented in distinction to Matthews Gospel which says that
they holy family was visited by three Magi, who were “wise men” and Kings.
The Gospel
of John, the earliest Gospel, and that of Mark, they do not treat the subject
at all.
Matthew’s
community, and Luke’s community, they were writing to very different audiences.
As such, they tailored the narrative of the birth of Jesus to their audience.
They each in their way created a fiction that was pleasing to the people to
whom they were preaching.
This
is propaganda.
To
understand the Gospels, this must be understood first of all. The Gospels
contain some legitimate historical data, but the facts are difficult to sift
out. They are the product of artifice, they are fictions. The Gospels speak to
some truths that are universal, and relate some true events, but cannot be
relied on as a true account.
They
are propaganda, and that is not to say that they are bad, but it is to say that
they must be seen for what they are. Because the gospels are propaganda, they
are less reliable as a tool to teach us about Jesus and more appropriately used
to teach us about the diverse Near Eastern and Mediterranean communities that
formed the early church.
2nd
Sunday of Christmas (The Solemnity of Mary)
