Christmas Study

Here is the first of our Christmas studies...

Christmas #1 12/03/09

Of the two major Christian feasts (Easter and Christmas) Christmas, while less central to the Christian message, has been the one most widely embraced. December 25th was superimposed upon the older Roman feasts of Saturnalia and New Year. St Francis of Assisi introduced the nativity crib, and then the Santa story and other mid-winter traditions were all thrown into the mix. There is something about the Christmas spirit – the giving of gifts, the message of peace and goodwill, that makes us feel good. Soldiers in the first year of the 1st world war reached out across the trenches to play football with the enemy on Christmas morning. Another attraction of Christmas is the very human interest in origins – in particular of famous and important figures. How did they come to turn out like they did? There is truth in the saying “the child is the father to the man”.

Neither Mark (the first of the Gospels chronologically) nor John recount Jesus’ birth or childhood. Both start with Jesus’ adult ministry. Only two of the Gospels, Matthew and Luke, have nativity narratives. These narratives differ widely – much more so than the “single eye” with which these gospels approach the account of his adult life. Raymond Brown, an eminent Roman Catholic scholar of the 20th century, describes the nativity narratives as “folkloristic stories”. They come from people’s conversation. They can have an element of truth, but also an element of elaboration. If they are not taken with naïve literalness then the meaning of story is allowed to come through more powerfully. The four key teachings of the nativity story are:

1. That Jesus represents a radical alternative and contrast to the imperial power under which he was born.
2. Jesus represents a fulfillment of humanity’s search for wisdom.
3. Jesus sides with the poor and abandoned.
4. The core story and circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth to an unwed mother.

Matthew has more formal structure and has a more systematic approach than the earlier Markan Gospel. By the time of Matthew’s composition the Jesus’ story was well established in the growing Christian communities. Matthew’s audience was from communities emerging from a predominantly Jewish background. His Gospel is constructed in five sections that recollect the five books of the Jewish Torah, and Jesus is presented as the new Moses.

Jesus was born marginal to both his own community and to the imperial power of his time. In Matthew we have the story of Herod the Great and the visit of the magi. Pliny, a historian writing towards the end of the first century, describes kings from the east visiting Nero guided by a star. In MT 2:1-23 we have the story of the magi, the flight to Egypt and the slaughter of the innocents. This echoes the story of Moses in the Torah. Pharaoh demanded that the Hebrew newborn sons be killed immediately they were born by throwing them into the Nile. Moses escaped death by being set adrift on the Nile hidden in a basket. In Jesus’ story Herod takes the place of Pharaoh, and Jesus of the whole of Israel. There is no account of the slaughter of the innocents by Herod outside of the New Testament, however he was notorious for his brutality. It was said that it was “better to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son” because his religion forbade him to eat pork, yet he killed several of his sons, his wife and other relatives because of his paranoia of rivals. When he was dying, he ordered his soldiers to round up 2 men from each village to be cut down by arrows when he died so that there would be mourning in the land (recorded by Josephus). So the Gospel story is credible to his character and fits with the historical portrait that exists. Herod’s response is of deadly fear against an unknown threat. Worldly power senses the threat inherent in innocence and non-violence. Dietrich Bonheoffer used the example of Herod in his famous Christmas sermon that resisted the Nazi regime. Herod reacts brutally by killing a lot of people. It is often the case that the gospel can initially seem to make things worse if it is taken seriously. The gospel confronts us and challenges us and upsets the established order. It is because of this that Christianity is often contained and boxed in, because it is so disruptive.

The Magi were scholars of arcane and esoteric knowledge. They gathered this knowledge from the stars and from ancient prophecies. They studied an ancient and deep secular wisdom. The tradition developed that they were also kings because of the cost of their gifts (gold for sovereignty, frankincense for deity and myrrh used in the anointing of the dead). The story of the magi indicates that human wisdom will recognize Jesus. His importance is for the whole earth and extends beyond the Jewish people. In this he is like other key Old Testament figures such as Cyrus king of the Persians (“the anointed” in Isaiah). It also brings to mind the Isaiah prophesies of the Servant - the ends of the earth are waiting for his teaching. The magi story seems to say that the truth of the gospel can be found in any wisdom tradition if one searches deeply enough.

Many people today still place faith in astrology – signs and meanings derived from the constellations. The Babylonians and Persians were famous for it. Our cosmology (our understanding of the heavens and our universe) is usually dependent on our understanding of ourselves. If we are violent then we will project that violence in to our cosmology (a violent God, cosmic battles and end-times filled with conflict). If we see the heavens through the lens of the baby Jesus, then they are transformed into a peaceful place filled with the music of angels and the light of a brilliant star. The story of the star that leads the magi suggests a restructuring of our violent cosmology.

Matthew’s Gospel begins with the genealogy of Jesus. This is divided into three groups of fourteen generations. From Abraham to David; from Solomon to Jeconiah; and from Shealtiel to Joseph. Fourteen represents a doubling of the number seven – a number associated with divine activity (e.g. the seven days of creation). Three represents the divine presence (for example the three angels who visited Abraham, the Trinity, etc). The genealogy is there to underscore the divine influence and involvement in the birth of Jesus. Except that there are only thirteen in the final group. Some scholars say that it was a miscalculation by Matthew. It seems more likely though that the final person listed in Jesus’ genealogy is meant to be Mary. MT 1:6 reads “and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born,” (the same verb, in passive form, as used of the male progenitors). This claim is backed up by the presence of four other women mentioned in the long list of male names. These four are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba). All four of these women were associated with sexual impropriety. Rahab was a prostitute, Tamar and Ruth acted as prostitutes and Bathsheba was the victim of a rape. All four were of gentile origins (Rahab and Tamar were Canaanite; Ruth was a Moabite and Bathsheba’s name indicates that she was a “daughter of Sheba” and her husband was a Hittite). All four were marginal women and yet they were crucial to the line that led to Jesus. Their presence in the genealogy sets the scene for Mary – another marginal woman crucial to Jesus’ story.

Mt 1:18-25 describes Mary’s situation which was one of great dubiousness and impropriety. In the Talmud Jesus is described as the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier. Elsewhere in the Gospels Jesus’ illegitimacy is hinted at by his accusers (Jn 8: 41). In v. 18 Mary is found to be with child “of the Holy Spirit”. These four words were added by Matthew at this point of the narrative to decrease the scandal of her situation for the reader. If omitted what remains is a much more real and concrete account of vulnerability and peril. Deuteronomy 22:13 states the consequences to an unwed mother if discovered – death by stoning. What stood between Mary and this fate was the compassion of Joseph, although as a righteous man he was also going to reject her.

We are used to the idea of a virgin birth because Luke makes this explicit when Mary says “I have known no man”. As well as this Matthew substitutes the Greek word “parthenos” for the original Hebrew word “maiden” or “young girl” used in the Isaiah prophecy: “Behold a virgin will conceive..”. If you allow yourself to step away from this idea for a moment then the redeeming action of God in the world becomes even more profound. Jesus enters the world as he leaves it – both condemned and yet innocent. From the very beginning of his life he has to confront the condemnation of the world. The taint of illegitimacy would have impacted Jesus – his relationships with outcasts, his compassion for the outsider. Yet love was also present in his childhood providing a witness of a different kind – of acceptance, forgiveness and mercy among the members of his immediate family. Not knowing his biological father may have strengthened his relationship with his heavenly Father. Perhaps what makes this a more powerful understanding of the nativity would be the realization that God takes and transforms the situation of all people - however lowly. God is revealed in terrible circumstances and takes the part of the discarded. In his very act of being born Jesus brings mercy and redemption – to Mary, to Joseph.

This reading of the Gospels has been largely veiled by the Christian tradition –it was even too much for the Evangelists themselves to clearly present. Historically those disputing the Virgin Birth have often been people trying to detract from the divinity of Jesus. Perhaps today, with illegitimacy not such a scandalous event, we can begin to understand the truly wondrous nature of God that enters our world in such a way to bring forgiveness and redemption to all. In his birth Jesus establishes that there is no place outside of God’s love. “Of the Holy Spirit” means exactly this: all human situations of rejection and condemnation are rendered forgiven and filled with God.