unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). Though these words are familiar to us from frequent reading of the Christmas story, we should realize how surprising it would be to any first-century Jew to hear that someone born as a baby was the “Christ” (or “Messiah”)23 and, moreover, that this one who was the Messiah was also “the Lord”—that is, the Lord God himself!
