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I. Born into the House of David

A. Luke the Master Painter

In the previous lesson, we saw how Matthew firmly established Jesus as the Son of David, heir to all the Old Testament promises we looked at in Lesson 1.

An ancient legend said that Luke was a skilled painter who painted a portrait from life of the Virgin Mary. The legend fits: where Matthew almost piles up evidence of Jesus’ fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and types, Luke makes his point with beautiful images.

Like Matthew, Luke begins by showing us that Jesus had the right genealogical credentials (see Luke 1:26-27).

He is careful to point out that Joseph was "of the house of David" (see Luke 1:27). Joseph was Jesus’ legal father; therefore, Jesus was of the house of David, as the prophets had foretold that the Christ would be.

But Luke gives us what Matthew and the other Gospel writers leave out: the story of the conception and birth of Jesus. He places this too firmly in the context of the Old Testament prophecies concerning God’s covenant with David.

Recall that through the prophet Nathan, God had promised David a dynasty – that his throne would be "firm forever," always ruled by a son, whom God himself would consider His son (see 2 Samuel 7:12-13).

In Luke’s account of the Annunciation, Gabriel’s words clearly echo and even quote from that promise: "the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever" (see Luke 1:32-33).

In other words, Luke is telling us that Jesus is the long-expected Son of David in whom God’s promise is finally fulfilled.

Even more startling in Nathan’s prophecy was the promise that the Son of David would be considered Son of God (see 2 Samuel 7:14, and compare Psalm 2:7).

Again, Gabriel echoes the same language: the child, he says, "will be called Son of the Most High " - a common title for God in the Old Testament (see, for example, Genesis 14:18 and2 Samuel 22:14, where the title is used by David himself).

B. The City of David

The nativity of John the Baptist takes up almost as much space in the beginning of Luke’s Gospel as the nativity of Jesus Christ. Just as John the Baptist himself had the mission of preparing the way for the Christ, so Luke’s story of John the Baptist’s birth prepares us to understand who Christ is.

When his son John the Baptist was born, the priest Zechariah sang a hymn of praise to God, Who "has raised up a horn for our salvation within the house of David his servant, even as he promised through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old" (see Luke 1:68-70).

The horn is a common symbol of strength in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms (see, for example, Psalm 89:18 and Psalm 148:14). David himself called God, "the horn of my salvation" (see 2 Samuel 22:3).

Having told us exactly who the coming King is, Luke carefully locates His birth in Bethlehem.

Bethlehem, the birthplace of David, was where the prophet Samuel first found David and anointed him king of Israel (see 1 Samuel 16:4-13).

When a Roman enrollment sent every man to his home town (see Luke 2:1-3), Mary had to go to Bethlehem with her husband Joseph - "because," as Luke is careful to remind us, "he was of the house and family of David" (see Luke 2:4).

But Bethlehem was more than an ancestral marker for Luke and his audience. The prophet Micah had predicted the birth of a future king in Bethlehem - and something far greater, a child "whose origin is from of old" (see Micah 5:1-3; compare the "Ancient One" in Daniel 7:9and 7:13).

The familiar picture of the Nativity that Luke paints for us is exactly what the prophet Micah foresaw: a divine King born in Bethlehem and his mother.

C. Why Shepherds?

Micah also sees the coming King as a "shepherd" - another allusion to David, who a shepherd in the countryside around Bethlehem (see 1 Samuel 16:11).

So as soon as Jesus is born, Luke, the master painter, shows us a field full of shepherds.

This, too, may be a reference designed to stir the hopes of Luke’s readers.

The Lord was Israel’s “shepherd” (see Psalm 23:1 and Psalm 80:2). And God had promised, through the prophet Ezekiel, that He himself would punish Israel’s false shepherds – the rulers and teachers - and replace them with a good shepherd, a new David (see Ezekiel 34), who would gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

How fitting then, that the shepherds heard the good news first! Once again, Luke does not speak this directly, but uses evocative language from the Old Testament to show us that the Good Shepherd had arrived.

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