This past weekend, I found myself in a familiar Holiday scene. We were moving boxes to locate the Christmas decoration and found the remnants of a number of different nativity sets. Haven asked, “Do these all go together?” My back was turned as I replied, “Good question Buddy! The nativity sets usually combine all the characters from Matthew and Luke and have them all hangout around the manger. That’s not how it happened and can ruin just how cool the two stories are if taken separately.”
I paused and turned to see he was trying to combine three different sets with very different aesthetics. He looked up confused and I started laughing. Today wasn’t the day he would ask his theology nerd parent about the divergent birth narratives, but if he’s anything like his brother it isn’t far off. How do you explain to an eight-year-old that the scene we create with figures each year is actually a mash-up of two completely different stories? And more importantly, why would you want to, other than it makes the student loans less painful?
Well, it reminded me John Dominic Crossan’s remarkable lecture series on the Christmas narratives we did during Advent in 2022. He demonstrated how understanding these differences isn’t about taking something away from our faith. It’s about receiving a gift we didn’t even know we needed.
Starting With Honesty
Let me be direct: Matthew and Luke tell vastly different stories about Jesus’s birth. Not complementary stories that fit together like puzzle pieces. Different stories. And my friend Dom Crossan (can you hear his Irish accent as you read that?) wants us to stop pretending otherwise.
He calls these birth narratives “parabolic overtures”—think of them like the opening music of a movie that hints at all the themes you’re about to experience. Matthew’s overture sounds notes of danger, political intrigue, and refugee flight. Luke’s rings with songs of reversal, divine surprise among the poor, and peaceful transformation. Same baby, profoundly different music.
Now, some of you might be thinking, “Trip, why does this matter? Can’t we just enjoy the Christmas story?” And I hear you. I really do. But here’s what I’ve learned over the years: when we’re not honest about what the Bible actually says, we miss what it’s actually trying to tell us.
What We Discover in the Differences
Let me share what struck me most powerfully from Crossan’s analysis:
First, the genealogies alone tell us we’re in different territory. Matthew connects Jesus to Abraham through David’s royal line—it’s very “insider,” very focused on Jesus as the fulfillment of Israel’s story. But Luke? Luke traces Jesus back to Adam, “son of Adam, son of God.” Do you see what Luke’s doing there? He’s saying this story isn’t just for one people. It’s for everyone who’s ever drawn breath.
Second, notice who gets the announcement. In Matthew, God speaks to Joseph through dreams—maintaining patriarchal protocol, you might say. But Luke? God sends Gabriel directly to Mary, a young, unmarried woman with no social power whatsoever. Her “yes” changes everything. Friends, the stories we tell about God reveal what we believe about God.
Third, look at who shows up. Matthew brings Persian astrologers following cosmic signs—outsiders recognizing what insiders miss. Luke gathers night-shift shepherds, the kind of people who couldn’t even testify in court because they were considered unreliable. The guest lists tell us something crucial about who’s invited to this party.
Why This Matters Right Now
Here’s where Crossan really got my attention. He talked about visiting Gaudí’s Sagrada Família in Barcelona, where the entire nativity facade is embedded in—almost exploding with—images from nature. Birds, trees, flowers, domestic animals, working people. It’s creation itself giving birth to something new.
This isn’t just pretty decoration. Crossan suggests (and I’m paraphrasing here) that these stories are about humanity’s evolution—about a new kind of human consciousness emerging, one that could transform how we live together on this planet. When he said that, I thought about climate change, about refugees at borders, about the growing gap between rich and poor. What if these different Christmas stories are exactly what we need for such a time as this?
The Stories We Need
Matthew’s story, with its refugees fleeing political violence, speaks directly to our world of displaced families and authoritarian threats. When Herod kills the innocents to protect his power, don’t we recognize that story? When the “wise men” choose to kneel before a vulnerable baby instead of a powerful king, aren’t they showing us where wisdom really leads?
Luke’s story, where God’s peace is announced to those working the night shift, where a teenage girl’s “yes” unleashes divine possibility, where the religious establishment is turned upside down—doesn’t our world need this story too?
Here’s what I’m learning: we need both stories. Not blended into some third thing, but both in their fullness, their distinctiveness, their challenging beauty.
An Advent Practice
So here’s my invitation as we enter this Advent season. What if we didn’t try to harmonize these stories? What if we let them be what Crossan calls them—different melodies playing at the same time, creating harmony through their very difference?
That is exactly what Diana Butler Bass and I will be doing in our online Advent class The Beginning of Another World: Advent Against Empire. Each week, we’ll explore one gospel’s unique vision of the birth narrative, allowing Matthew, Luke, John, and Mark to speak in their own voices about what it means for God to show up when empires think they’re in control. We’ll discover how these ancient texts of resistance offer wisdom for our own moment of political turmoil, economic inequality, and ecological crisis.
The Gift of Different Stories
You know, that conversation with Haven didn’t end where I thought it would. After I realized he was confused by having multiple different nativity sets he said, “It’s okay. Maybe we can use all the different Shepherds, Wise-men, and Angels together, but just one baby Jesus since he loves every different kind of person.”
Out of the mouths of babes, right?
Friends, in a world that’s increasingly divided into camps of “us” and “them,” in a time when we’re told we must choose sides and defend our position at all costs, these different Christmas stories offer us another way. They show us that truth can be told from different angles, that God can be encountered through different experiences, that the story is big enough for all of us.
Crossan ends his lecture with a question that haunts me in the best way: What does Christianity’s advent have to do with humanity’s evolution? What if these aren’t just sweet stories about a baby born long ago, but invitations into a new way of being human?
This Christmas, may we have the courage to receive these stories as they actually are—different, challenging, irreducible to a single narrative. And may we discover that in their very difference lies a gift we desperately need: the ability to hold multiple truths with grace, to find God in unexpected places, and to believe that the story of divine love is big enough for all of us.
Two Ways to Explore the Christmas Stories
If Dom’s rather amazing lecture here inspires you, then head over to Theology Class where you can join and get access to the entire class to engage personally or use it in a small group this Advent season. You will find over 50 classes, including all the different ones we’ve done with Dom.
Join this year’s Advent class with me and Diana Butler Bass! We will explore how the four gospels speak their own revolutionary word against empire—both in their ancient context under Roman occupation and for our contemporary world shaped by capitalism, militarism, and nationalism.
Advent marks the beginning of the church year—an invitation to step out of the empire’s time and into God’s time, where the last are first, the mighty are scattered, and a child born in occupied territory changes everything.
This course invites you into an alternative calendar and rhythm. While our modern world races through December toward consumption and productivity, Advent calls us to a different time—a counter-imperial waiting, a subversive hope, a radical reimagining of how God enters the world.
The class is donation-based, including 0. If you are looking for an online community of people seeking to take each Gospel’s unique voice seriously and wrestle with it for our own moment, then this is the community for you!
Register for the NEW ADVENT CLASS with Diana Butler Bass!
Join us for a transformative four-week Advent journey exploring how the four gospels speak their own revolutionary word against empire—both in their ancient context under Roman occupation and for our contemporary world shaped by capitalism, militarism, and nationalism.
This course invites you into an alternative calendar and rhythm. While our modern world races through December toward consumption and productivity, Advent calls us to a different time—a counter-imperial waiting, a subversive hope, a radical reimagining of how God enters the world.
Each week, we’ll hear one gospel’s unique vision of the birth narrative, allowing Matthew, Luke, John, and Mark to speak in their own voices about what it means for God to show up when empires think they’re in control. We’ll discover how these ancient texts of resistance offer wisdom for our own moment of political turmoil, economic inequality, and ecological crisis.
Four Livestreamed Sessions - Each session focuses on one of the gospels and includes a mini-lecture followed by a conversation between Diana and Tripp.
Live QnA with Diana and Tripp - Engage with Diana and Tripp, ask pressing questions, and enrich your understanding during our interactive QnA sessions.
Exclusive Online Community - Connect with fellow learners and dive into discussions, sharing insights and reflections.
Replays Available for Livestreams - You can participate fully without being present at any specific time. Livestreams will be available for replay on the Class Resource Page.
ASYNCHRONOUS CLASS: Livestream replays are available on the Class Resource Page. You can participate fully without being present at any specific time.
COST: A course like this is typically offered for $250 or more, but we invite you to contribute whatever you can (including $0) to help make this possible for everyone!
Watch the Preview Livestream!
Tuesday, November 18th (11am PT / 2pm ET)
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