The Bible sort of does that with the four Gospels—each tells
the story of the life of Jesus from a different perspective. Interestingly, you will not find a
description of the birth in the Gospel of Mark,
which is believed to be the earliest Gospel written. Like Star Wars movies, Mark starts his story in medias res; he doesn’t feel the need
to “set the stage” with “yellow words” across the star field. (Perhaps he assumes his readers already know
the backstory?) When Mark’s Gospel begins, adult Jesus is already on the
scene and the opening scene is one of John the Baptist's fiery proclamations to "prepare themselves" for his arrival.
While Mark gives us no description of how Jesus came to be, it’s abundantly clear that he very much is. But perhaps every good story needs an introduction, and Matthew, Luke, and John, all of whom had Mark as a reference (as well as other sources), each saw fit to provide one.
The Gospel of John
is like the view from space in Star Wars.
John 1:1-15 reads like “yellow words”
setting the scene for the birth of Jesus—and all subsequent Episodes. This “cosmic perspective” says that on that
night when Jesus was born, the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us; Light entered the world and the Darkness could
not overcome it. The Word was
barely audible at first and not many heard it; the Light started small and
fragile, a smoldering wick that
could’ve easily been snuffed out on many occasions—but, remarkably,
wasn’t.
Perhaps after the
birth itself, the greatest Christmas miracle of all is that, against all odds,
the Word and Light managed to take hold and grew in volume and intensity. To this day the Darkness has not overcome it!
As Jesus grew up, and became a man and began his ministry,
the Word spoke louder and the Light shone brighter. The Word and the Light eventually came into
conflict with Rome. In the world in
which Jesus was born, Caesar was the word; the Emperor was viewed as the light
of the world. Into that world, comes
Jesus claiming a completely different revolutionary reality for those that
chose to follow him. Jesus would not
stop proclaiming the Word nor shudder the Light—ever—and ultimately that
refusal led to his death at the hands of the Romans. But the Word was so powerful and the Light so
bright that even brutal death didn’t have the last word; even ultimate Darkness
did not prevail. The Word and the Light
endured—and continue to endure today.
Of course I am giving away “spoilers” here, let’s get back
to Christmas...
The "birth narratives" in Matthew
1-2 and Luke 1-2 give us the
“view from Earth”— a much more “human” perspective. Luke
tells us the miraculous stories of the birth of John the Baptist and the
conception of and birth of Jesus. That
same account says that shepherds tending their flocks saw a host of angels
telling them about this birth, assuaging their fears and proclaiming glad
tidings of great joy. The shepherds
hurried to Bethlehem to see what was going on.
Matthew’s version
of the story also tells us the birth story, but more from Joseph’s perspective.
In Matthew’s version, Jesus is actually born in Nazareth. Also according to Matthew—a few years
later—wise men come from the east, having followed a star that led them to the
house where toddler Jesus and his family lived.
Matthew also tells us that the Holy Family is forced to flee Bethlehem
to escape Herod’s infanticide to exterminate the threat to his throne; they go
into exile in Egypt (evoking parallels to Exodus) until it is safe to
return.
Our typical Christmas
nativity draws primarily from Luke’s story, but then amalgamates elements from
Matthew’s account. We usually add
the wise men at the manger for convenience—but they likely weren’t there for
the birth. If we mention the infanticide
and exile to Egypt at all, it usually isn’t until the weeks following Christmas,
when the “poinsettias” have disappeared and attendance is much lighter.
No comments:
Post a Comment