“Sorting through the stack of cards that arrived at our house last Christmas, I note that all kinds of symbols have edged their way into the celebration. Overwhelmingly, the landscape scenes render New England towns buried in snow, usually with the added touch of a horse-drawn sleigh. On other cards, animals frolic: not only reindeer, but also chipmunks, raccoons, cardinals and cute gray mice. One card shows an African lion reclining with a foreleg draped affectionately around a lamb.
Angels have made a huge comeback in recent years, and Hallmark and American Greetings now feature them prominently, though as demure, cuddly-looking creatures, not the type that would ever have to announce “Fear not!” The explicitly religious cards (a distinct minority) focus on the holy family, and you can tell at a glance these folks are different. They seem unruffled and serene. Bright gold halos, like crowns from another world, hover just above their heads.
Inside, the cards stress sunny words like love, goodwill, cheer, happiness and warmth. It is a fine thing, I suppose, that we honor a sacred holiday with such homey sentiments. And yet when I turn to the gospel accounts of the first Christmas, I hear a very different tone and sense mainly disruption at work.” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, Zondervan, p.29)
In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Yancey reminds us that the first Christmas wasn’t all that serene. Imagine Mary as a very pregnant teenager and her young husband traveling to Bethlehem to enroll in a census that the Roman government demanded. We’re reminded that Jesus entered this world as a scandal of sorts because no one but Joseph and her cousin Elizabeth believed her story about being impregnated by the Holy Spirit. Joseph had nearly divorced her and, perhaps, wondered from time to time if he had actually been visited by an angel who told him that Mary’s story was true or if he had just imagined the whole thing. Having been married for eight or nine months, Joseph had never been able to sexually consummate his marriage with his young wife. He had been “cheated” out of his dreams and traditions of the Jewish wedding feast and wedding night.
Traveling this late in her pregnancy was a severe hardship and risky. For her to leave her family at such a time suggests that there was still a great deal of tension and embarrassment about this pregnancy. Arriving late and finding no rooms available must have added to the tension as well. This was not how any little Jewish girl had ever imagined her marriage or the birth of her firstborn. Not only was she in a strange place bereft of her family, but their only shelter was most likely a damp cave with the smell of animals and animal droppings all around. Perhaps they had found a mid-wife to help Mary through her labor. Perhaps, they faced that very human ordeal alone with some pain and some fear. We really don’t know the time of the year that God had chosen for his only begotten to enter this world in the flesh. It may have been cold or hot or reasonably pleasant but there was no climate-controlled room to welcome the creator of the universe.
Sometime in the night a handful of unknown shepherds smelling of sheep appeared with stories of angelic visitations announcing the birth of this “King of Israel.” To them it had been a terrifying experience more than a joy-filled moment in the serene pastures surrounding Bethlehem. On this first night, no kings appeared to welcome this child but only dirty, semi-religious shepherds. Joseph and Mary were not given a commentary of the purposes of God in all of this. They were left to wonder what God was up to just as we have to wonder when events in our lives are not what we ever anticipated.
Christmas cards and pageants always have the wise men from the east arriving with the shepherds while the star of Bethlehem adorns the sky outside of a nice, clean wooden stable with the baby Jesus lying neat and clean and smiling with his arms stretched out in a welcoming pose. A careful read of the gospels indicate that the wise men came later – perhaps as much as two years later. Joseph and Mary had chosen not to return to Nazareth with their new son but apparently had remained in Bethlehem, the city of David. Once again, we are reminded that they may not have felt welcome back home. When the wise men, kings from the east, arrived they went to Herod to see if he knew where this recently born King of the Jews was. His response was treachery as he asked the kings to alert him to the presence of this child if they found him so that he could worship this “pretender to his throne” as well. His intention was to kill this child whose very presence threatened him.
The kings brought their valuable gifts and laid them at the feet of Mary and Joseph and worshiped the child. Mary found the whole thing a little odd and simply stored the moment up in her heart to ponder later. She would have to because as soon as these kings left, she and Joseph were warned in a dream to pack up, leave quickly, and flee to Egypt to avoid Herod’s death squads. Shortly after their departure, Herod murdered every male child under the age of two years that lived in Bethlehem. Apparently, the star had first appeared 12 to 24 months earlier indicating the birth of the king. I’m sure Herod gave himself some margins so that his death squad would not miss this child the prophets had spoken about.
By the time Jesus was two years old he had been driven from his hometown of Nazareth by scandal, born in a dark stable, kept from the nurture of loving Jewish grandparents and had become a political refugee fleeing by foot to Egypt. There he would live in exile for several years until Herod had died and enough peace was finally made with the families that Joseph and Mary and their young son returned to Nazareth.
The scandal of God, the confusion and anxiety of a young couple, the murder of the innocents in Bethlehem and the flight to Egypt are not depicted on our Christmas cards. Certainly the faith of Joseph and Mary brought some peace in the midst of this. The kings from the east funded their flight to Egypt. Angelic choruses brought a sense of wonder and majesty to the birth of the Son of God becoming the Son of Man. But all in all, Christmas should remind us again of the price Jesus paid for our redemption. And not only Jesus but the people attached to him as well. While we were yet sinners, Jesus not only died for us but was born in harsh circumstances for us as well. Jesus, from birth to resurrection, is the expression of God’s amazing love for us – for you. This Christmas that is worth celebrating. Be blessed.
