Four Views of Christmas

Kin Hubbard once said, “Next to a circus there ain’t nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit.”  Well, that’s not good! And so, to stop this loss of spirit, let’s talk about the Christmas story even though it is January, (or at least, use it as a springboard to talk about other things).  Sometime between Christmas and New Year’s, we were talking to good friends who asked a great question: “Why is Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth so different from Matthew’s?” It was a really good question, and it gets to the heart of how the gospels were put together (which is kind of important stuff!). How different are Matthew and Luke’s accounts? Well, let’s look! Here’s what we see when we read through MATTHEW’S ACCOUNT: There’s a genealogy of Jesus (starts with Abraham and ends with Jesus). The angel visits Joseph to answer his