After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. There are four themes that will be important to Luke’s gospel that he announces and intertwines in this brief verse. Eight days. Jewish...

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Of all the characters in the Christmas story, I suspect it’s the shepherds we have most misunderstood. I don’t know if it’s all the cute kids who have worn their dad’s bathrobes in...

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. It’s sometimes easy for us to forget that the Evangelists – those Christians who wrote our four gospels –...

Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first,...