Linus stood on the stage and quoted from the most famous Christmas passage of all time, Luke 2:1-16, which begins: “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.”
It is hard not to love that amazing “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and Linus could not have picked a better passage to use.
He could have, though, picked other passages. And, surprisingly to some, not all of them would have even been in the New Testament.
Matthew 1:20-23 tells us that Jesus was born of a virgin. But the Old Testament said it first, 700 years before it happened. Isaiah 7:14 says, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Chapter 2 of Matthew tells us that the newborn king of the Jews would be born in the most unlikely of places. Not the capital city of Jerusalem, but the backwoods hamlet of Bethlehem.