Merry Fifth Day of Christmas everyone. I wanted to get this out on the Third Day, but, well, the muse wasn’t with me. This year I’m going to do something different. I’m gonna write two reflections: the usual one where I review the year that was, and another where I put down my thoughts on what the future holds.
In the Days of King Herod
Some time around the year -3, a newly betrothed couple gave birth to a child in Bethlehem, a small town south of Jerusalem in what is now the West Bank of Palestine but was then part of the Kingdom of Judea, a client state of the Roman Empire, ruled over by King Herod. Curiously, the mother, Miriam, had become pregnant before her marriage, and the father, Yosef, had not yet slept with her. They named the child Yeshua, a common name meaning “God saves,” and went to Nazareth, a small town in Galilee, to the north of Judea in what is now the Northern District of Israel.
The story of the Nativity is only written about in two of the four Gospels: Matthew and Luke. Not only that, but they kinda contradict each other? Luke has the more straightforward story: Mary and Joseph have to go down from Nazareth for a Roman census, there’s no room at the inn so Mary gives birth in a manger, a bunch of nearby shepherds worship the newborn, he’s circumcised and named Jesus, he’s taken to the temple in Jerusalem where he’s worshiped again, and the couple goes back up to Nazareth.
In Matthew, the couple seems to already live in Bethlehem, and the three magi visit the holy child at a house, but not before telling King Herod in Jerusalem that they’re looking for the newborn king of the Jews. The magi give their three gifts and are told to ghost Herod and head back to…Persia? I dunno. The Holy Family is told to head out to Egypt and King Herod kills all the babies in Bethlehem. Eventually King Herod dies, but since his son took over, Joseph decides it’s best to leave Judea and moves to Galilee.
The version of the nativity we imagine in popular culture is a combination of the two stories. Luke’s version feels like it’s closer to reality, even if the census he wrote about didn’t seem to happen. Matthew’s version feels more thematic, with the whole “go to Egypt to escape a king killing all the newborns” sounding very Prince of Egypt-y. Not to mention the whole “Jesus will be more popular with Gentile rulers than Jewish ones” thing.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the story of the Nativity. And I guess it would be stranger if two guys writing about an event they were not there for nearly a century after it happened did match up. But there’s no historical record of the census in Luke, no historical record of the Massacre of the Innocents in Matthew, and both Gospels say St. Joseph is descended from King David and list every person between David and Joseph…except the lists don’t really match up?
O tidings of comfort and joy
This year I’ve been going all in on Christmas, and I think it started with a trip to Goodwill where I saw a decoration with the words “Comfort and Joy” written on it. It’s dumb, I know, but something about that resonated with me. Or maybe it started when I bought a wreath for the door which became a gateway to covering my apartment with strings of cheap LEDs.
I’ll admit I’m not that religious, and my faith has never been that consistent. Perhaps that’s the reasonable approach with what information we’ve got, but it is frustrating. I have always found evangelicals insufferable, for what it’s worth. Still, I think the Nativity story is beautiful regardless of whether you take it at face value. Because it’s a story of comfort and joy. It’s a story of peasants making the best of a situation and outwitting an unjust ruler. And above all, it’s a story about hope.
I have despaired many times over the last few years with a combination of personal crises, stagnantation, and this feeling that no matter what I do I keep making the same mistakes. It doesn’t feel like anything good’s happened since the start of the deace, and we’re almost halfway through it. I think this year’s hit a breaking point with the election. I did start the year depressed, and I’ll admit that I drank the Kamala Kool-Aid because, even if I knew she was probably not going to be that revolutionary of a president, it meant avoiding an administration that promised to hurt people. Not just people I cared about, but people in general. Immigrants, trans people, fellow citizens who lived in “blue states.” People who speak truth to power. That scares me.
But I refuse to be scared. Fear is weakness, and the best thing we can do is to live our lives. To live our lives as we want to live them, and fight when people try to stop us.
The theme of the DNC and the campaign seemed to be Joy. A cynic would say joy about nothing, but something about that message did resonate with me at the time. Joy is stronger than anger, stronger than fear. Joy is active, while fear and anger are reactive.
All of this to say, if we are to face an unjust ruler once again, we cannot let anger and fear rule us.
And remember to be kind to each other. To love your neighbor as yourself. To care for the least of us, for Jesus was once numbered amongst them.
In this winter season, we must remember to comfort those who are suffering, and bring joy to those we love.
For what it’s worth.