Why are the stories of Jesus birth so important to us?
• Certainly they are wonderful stories that we should cherish dearly. But they seem not to have been too terribly important to many leaders of the early church. • The Apostle Paul, whom we believe to be the earliest New Testament writer (20 to 30 years after Jesus’ death) did not mention anything about Jesus’ birth. But then Paul didn’t mention anything about Jesus’ life and ministry either–except Jesus’ last supper with his disciples before his arrest, his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the grave. We would know almost nothing about the actual life and ministry of Jesus if we had only Paul’s letters to rely on. • Mark, whom we believe to be the earliest of the gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John–who actually wrote a biography about the life of Jesus) didn’t think it was important enough to include in his story anything about the unusual birth of Jesus. Mark began his story of Jesus with Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist–when Jesus was about 30 years of age a
