Those who actually wrote and originally passed
on our Christian Scriptures would have a difficult time understanding why we
modern followers of Jesus get so excited about Christmas. They couldn't
appreciate how something they thought peripheral to their faith plays such a
central role in ours.
Mark, the first Gospel writer, doesn't
mention, much less describe Jesus' birth. If one read only the earliest
Christian writings - Paul's letters - one would find very little about
it.
The two evangelists, Matthew and Luke, who
narrate the event, do so in contradictory ways. The feast of Christmas wasn't
even celebrated during the Church's first centuries.
Central events
Why? The reason is simple: For Jesus'
immediate disciples, no occurrence could be in the same ballpark with His
dying and rising. This double event was the basis of their faith and at the
heart of the message they proclaimed.
None of them, for instance, would have applied
Christmas' first reading (Is 52: 7-10) to Jesus' birth. In its original
context, the person carrying Yahweh's "glad tidings, announcing
peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation" is addressing Jews who
have been wasting away in the Babylonian Exile for almost 50 years.
The prophet is demanding that his audience join
him in praising Yahweh for the end of their captivity and the triumphant
return to Jerusalem they're about to experience. Such words would have
meshed only with the Christian experience of dying, then receiving a new
life with Jesus. His historical birth was not originally that significant or
memorable.
In a similar way, the author of the second
reading (Heb 1: 1-6) zeroes in much more on what happened during and after
Jesus' death and resurrection than on what took place before it. Notice
how the writer emphasizes "when the Son had cleansed us from our
sins."
God's speaking through the Son, creating with
the Son, giving Him a seat at the right hand of the majesty and even
declaring Him God's Son presupposed Jesus had already experienced the
dying and rising which He expects us to imitate.
That seems to be why the well-known prologue
comprising Sunday's Gospel (John 1: 1-18) stresses not only Jesus'
pre-existence as God and His becoming flesh and dwelling among us, but also
the sad fact that "His own did not accept Him."
Jesus' life
We presume their rejection wasn't triggered
by Jesus' pre-existence or birth, but because of the way He lived His life
here on earth. It was His selfless giving that got Him into trouble. How
much "enduring love" can we actually take, much less integrate
into our lives?
Many of us find it difficult to appreciate the
faith and teaching of our evangelists because we don't recognize what
motivated them to create their writings.
None of them intended to provide us with a
biography of Jesus. They wrote not because they wanted to inform us of what
Jesus said and did, but because they wanted to help us explore the meaning
of what Jesus said and did.
Don't forget that many Christians lived their
faith for over 40 years before the first Gospel was written. That means that
Gospel narratives can't be essential for our faith. They don't give us
faith; they simply help us understand the faith we already had before we
ever read a Gospel.
Before we get taken away by our modern
celebration of Christmas, it might be good to remind ourselves of the dying
and rising faith of Jesus' first followers. Though none of the authors of
our Christian Scriptures thought we could imitate Jesus' birth, they were
certain we could imitate His death and resurrection. They had already done
so.
If we can't find an aspect of the feast of
Christmas in which we can die and rise, why, as Christians, are we
celebrating it?
(12/22/05)