Scripture Study for

The priestly prayer in Numbers is a threefold blessing, invoking  God’s protection, peace, and kindly attention. These three elements capture well the main contours of the story of God and Israel, even all of humanity, beginning already at the beginning of the divine-human story. In the early chapters of Genesis we see God protecting  Adam and Eve and their son Cain, a sign that God’s protection extends even to those who fall on the wrong side of God’s will.  God’s graciousness is manifest in the multiple promises God makes to Israel, beginning with Abram and Sarai. And the ultimate desire is for all of God’s creation to exist in harmony, shalom, peace. 

In his Letter to the Galatians, Paul emphasizes that through Jesus  Christ, humanity has been released from its slavery to sin. Whereas once all humans were slaves, now they who choose to accept the divine gift are heirs along with Christ. It is important to Paul that  Jesus is known to be a fully human Jew, who was born subject (like all Jews) to the Law, because it was only from “within the Law,”  so to speak, that Jesus was able to “ransom” all under the Law by removing them from their dependence on the Law to be justified.  The important point, of course, is not how Jesus accomplished this,  but that he did—and because he did, all who believe in him are children and heirs of God. 

The Gospel of Luke places considerable emphasis on the fact that in Jesus, God has visited in a special way the materially poor of the earth. Many poor, powerless, and socially despised people  (whom today we might call “marginalized”) feature prominently in his account. It is not surprising, therefore, to find poverty marking the birth scene of Christ. He is born in a shed or something like it and placed in an animals’ feeding trough, and he is first visited by shepherds. Although their low social status is sometimes exaggerated by commentators, shepherds were not especially well-off or powerful,  and so it is fitting that it is to them first that the Good News of the  Savior is announced.