Christmas and the Eucharist: An Examination of Luke's Infancy Narrative

Christmas and the Eucharist: An Examination of Luke's Infancy Narrative

            Christmas is commonly referred to as the season of giving.  From a Christian perspective, we understand that the greatest gift of all is the gift of God himself, giving his Son to save a fallen world.  This gift of the second person of the Trinity, becoming human – an event known as the Incarnation – is an event which took place on March 25th, nine months prior to the birth of Jesus.  On Christmas, the long-awaited revelation of that gift is made known in the birth of a baby boy.  But have you ever considered that the story of Jesus’ birth alludes to Christ’s continual giving of himself in the Eucharist?  The infancy narrative in Luke’s Gospel is a story of the Gift that keeps on giving. 

The infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke are very different stories.  This is not to say that one is correct and the other fictitious, but that they have a very different purpose.  For example, one of these differences is that Joseph is the main character in Matthew’s infancy narrative, while Mary is the main character in Luke’s account.  But the two stories do have many points in common as well.  Both narratives tell that Joseph was of the house of David, that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, that he was born in Bethlehem, and that his birth occurred during the reign of Herod the Great, and other points as well.  But here we will examine the Lukan account and look to the deeper meaning of the text focusing on Luke 2:4-12 and ultimately find Eucharistic themes in Luke’s account.

            The first point both Matthew and Luke agree upon, that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  Luke tells us in 2:4-5, “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.”  Notice how detailed Luke is in his explanation of the travels of the Holy Family.  They went from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea.   Luke even mentions King David twice – Bethlehem is called the City of David and Joseph was a descendant of David.  This brings us to the first hint of Eucharistic imagery.  The name Bethlehem is combination of two Hebrew words (Beth = house) and (lehem = bread).  Jesus, the bread come down from heaven (John 6:51), is literally born in Bethlehem, the House of Bread.  That Bethlehem is called, “The City of David,” in v. 4 is significant for the next image.

The next two verses provide several important images.  Luke writes in 2:6-7, “And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered.  And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.  The words wrapped/laid, swaddling, manger, and inn, each deserve their own discussion.

Twice we are told that the baby was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in the manger (vv. 7, 12).  There is only one other place in Luke’s gospel where the words “wrapped” and “laid” appear together, and that is in Luke 23:53 when Luke speaks about Joseph of Arimathea removing the body of Jesus’ from the cross.  “Then he took it (his body) down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a rock-hewn tomb, where no one had ever been laid.”  With the same phrases appearing only in the beginning and the end of the gospel, it forms an inclusion, so that the first event anticipates or points toward the second event.  That would mean that Jesus being wrapped and laid in a manger, points to his sacrifice on the cross where he offers his body and blood, and subsequently, is wrapped and laid in the tomb.  How is that related to the Eucharist?  One must remember that Jesus’ death on the cross was made present at the Last Supper, where Jesus gave his apostles his body and blood in the form of bread and wine.  Luke makes this clear in 22:19-20.  “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’  And likewise the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.’”

The key image in this passage is the manger which is mentioned three times in this passage: vv. 7, 12, 16.  Only Luke mentions that Jesus was placed in a manger when he was born.  What is a manger?  It is an eating vessel that holds food for the sheep and other animals.  In fact, the word manger has the same root as the Italian word “to eat” – mangia!  Here it is worth noting that the first ones told of the birth of the Messiah, the Lamb of God (John 1:29) are shepherds.  When David was first called in 1 Samuel 16:11, he was in the fields shepherding the flock.  How does this demonstrate Luke's Eucharistic imagery?  For Jesus' followers, i.e. his sheep, he is both their shepherd and their food.  Saint John Chrysostom made a similar comment.  He compared the manger to the altar remarking that on them "the body of Christ reposes no longer in swaddling clothes, but wholly re-clothed by the Holy Spirit" in the Eucharist.

However, the swaddling of the infant Jesus takes this image further.  The image comes from Micah 4:8.  It reads, “And you, O tower of the flock (Heb: Migdal-eder), hill of daughter Zion, to you it shall come – the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.”  This passage speaks about the birth of the messiah.  In this area of the tower of the flock mentioned in Micah is a group of fields where shepherds would raise sheep that would be used for sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem.  In the same area, there is a series of caves in which the sheep would give birth to their lambs.  The sheep used for temple sacrifices needed to be without blemish, but the skin of newborn lambs is quite thin, fragile, and easily wounded or bruised.  In order to prevent the lambs from being wounded, the shepherds would wrap the lambs in strips of cloth to protect them.  At night, the shepherds would take the lambs and place them in the food troughs for further protection.  In fact, v. 8 mentions that the shepherds were keeping “night watch” over the flock.  Likely, it is these shepherds to whom the angel appears and tells them to go and they will find the savior of the world wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.  And so, on the night of Jesus’ birth, we see the shepherds finding the newborn Lamb of God, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger in Bethlehem.  They find the unblemished, sinless, lamb who will be the one and perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world who continues to feed us with his flesh.

            The next two points cannot be gleaned from an English translation.  Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph were forced to place Jesus in a manger because there was no room for them at the inn, or the place where travelers lodge (v.7).  The word that Luke uses for inn is kataluma.  The word is difficult to translate because it has many possible meanings, including inn, stable, house, guest room, lodging, as well as other possible translations.  What is significant, however, is that the only other place the word kataluma is used in the gospel is in Luke's account of the Last Supper.  It is the word he uses for the guestroom (22:11) to indicate where Jesus will celebrate the Passover meal, take the bread and say "this is my body,” and give himself in the Eucharist.

            Finally, Luke uses a very strange word to indicate that Mary "laid" Jesus in a manger (2:7).  The word used for "laid" is anaklino.  This is the only place in the New Testament where this word is used for laying something down.  The ordinary and most common use for this word anaklino is to refer to people reclining at table to eat a meal (7:36, 12:37).  Also, in 13:29, Luke uses it to refer to the heavenly Messianic Banquet of the Lord, which our celebration of the Mass prefigures.

            It is clear that in Luke's account of Jesus' birth that there is a deeper spiritual sense beyond the literal, historical account of a child’s birth.  The readers of Luke’s infancy narrative are drawn to a deeper meaning of the birth, one that ultimately, invites the reader to a sacred meal.  It is a meal at which the Christ child, once grown, will be both priest and victim, just as he was born to be both shepherd and food for his flock.  Let us recognize in the innocence of the child lying in a manger, the innocence of the Lamb of God offered daily on altars around the world.