Every Christmas, one of my favorite things to do is sit down, uninterrupted, and read the Christmas story. While both Matthew and Luke offer beautiful accounts of Jesus’ birth, I have to admit Luke’s account is my favorite.
Perhaps it’s the detail with which he describes Jesus’ birth. After all, it’s recorded that he was highly intelligent. Many believe he worked as a medical doctor. He was also highly respected and was even invited to travel with the apostle Paul.
Or perhaps I enjoy Luke’s gospel because it’s clear he had questions. And at one point, so did I.
I was raised in the Catholic church, which offered many beautiful traditions I still treasure to this day. But in my specific church, I was not taught to learn about Jesus for myself. I was not shown how to build a personal relationship with Him.
Thankfully, by the time Luke wrote his gospel, 60-80 years after Jesus’ birth, he had found the answers his heart longed for. He had conducted research and held conversations with eyewitnesses. So, in the first four verses of his book, Luke answers five questions we all need answered if we’re going to experience Christmas the way we’re meant to.
The first question is, What really happened? In verse one Luke writes, “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us…”
You can’t prove fables factual, but you can prove history. And Jesus’ life—His birth, death, and resurrection—ishistory. Study it, and you’ll find there were 353 prophetic pictures given of the Messiah that Jesus could not have fulfilled had God not supernaturally sent him.
The second question is, Who believes this? In verse 2, Luke answers, “they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.” The facts Luke presented came directly from firsthand sources—people who had actually been there.
The third question is, What does this mean to my life? In verse 3, Luke writes, “With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning . . .”
Luke knew that history was undeniable, but he still had to make a personal choice—just like we all do. We have to ask ourselves, Am I investigating Christ’s life simply to discover information? Or to become a disciple?
The last question Luke’s prologue answers is the biggest one of all—Is my faith a fairy tale, or is it true? In verse 4, he concludes, “so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”
Friends, Christmas is certain because Jesus is. But while history has proven His birth, death, and resurrection, we still have a personal choice to make. What will you allow Jesus’ life to produce in yours?
My prayer is that it produces a real relationship with our Savior—the Savior we celebrate not just at Christmas but every day of our lives! Merry Christmas!
