Christmas is around the corner and it’s time to celebrate but how can we celebrate when our nation is hung-over with the impact of Covid? How can we sing carols and make merry when fellow citizens are stitching back their lives? How can we celebrate when thousands of farmers brave the cold and wait in protest?
The popular idea of Joyful Christmas seems so distant in the context we are in right now. Yet, if we peel out the layers that are created and sold to us to explore the biblical narratives we discover how close the original Christmas story is to our situation today.
The First Christmas Happened In A Context Of Crisis!
Mary was pregnant and that too out of wedlock — a scandal that could end in her being stoned to death. Joseph started having doubts about his fiancée — he thought of silently ditching her. And in the middle of all this family drama — their nation was about to be thrown into chaos — the Roman government demanded a census. Everyone had to go back to their ancestral lands to get their property registered for taxation.
One can imagine their plight — but then Israel was under the mighty Roman Empire and the sword could get anything done. The crisis doesn’t just end with that — King Herod, the vassal king of Judea was insecure. He ruled under Roman mercy and always feared for his position. When he heard of the birth of a new king — he panicked and ordered a massacre. All children who were around the age of Jesus were ordered to be put to death.
Santa Claus, Jingle Bells and Christmas tree — the first Christmas had none of that.
This Christmas also seems to be like that, our thoughts are not so much about the festivities but rather the grim scenes we have seen and experienced clog the mindscape. What started off as a fine year soon transformed into a global catastrophe. A tiny virus had the entire world under its grip. Countless lives have been lost, many others have been destroyed with the after-effects of the sickness or the pain of lost loved ones.
The real human cost may never be known but we all have faced it in one or the other – either by means of lock-downs, lost jobs and opportunities or the terrible dread of getting infected.
The current situation has forced many of us to reflect on the meaning of Christmas in a way we never considered earlier.
The politically charged environment during Jesus’ birth wouldn’t be very different to ours right now with the farmers’ protest in the capital. The Jews were a divided lot, some — the Zealots were up in arms in their fight against the Romans, whereas many others chose to side with the Romans and work under or for them. In this context, we read about this call to get registered. Yes, ancient emperors and kings could almost do whatever they wished. They could decree and an entire people had to move back to their ancestral lands — the loss of work and the inconvenience caused — well those things hardly bothered the ruling class.
Joseph didn’t really have much of a choice. He had to do as he was ordered and so he takes Mary on this epic journey. But they are not the only ones travelling. We read about the wise men who are able to reflect on the ancient wisdom and read the current time. They anticipate the birth of a great king in Israel and so they travel to Israel looking for this new king. They start their search by asking King Herod after all kings are generally born in royal families. King Herod had no answer, in fact, he gets petrified — all he sees in all this is competition. So much so that he is even willing to orchestrate a massacre to pacify his fear. Such are the insecurities of the apparently invincible kind.
Jesus — the King of kings, is unlike any king the world has known. He wasn’t born in a palace protected by an army. No, he was born in a cattle-shed, laid on a feeding trough for cattle. He was born in a carpenter’s family and yet, his legacy outlasts and outshines that of any world-conqueror. Jesus is king — but his kingdom is so unlike the kingdoms we see around us. The ones who celebrated the first Christmas with Jesus weren’t the royalty and the rich but the lowly shepherds who were considered outcasts and unworthy. You see, this king Jesus — he is inclusive. He doesn’t care how you look or what you wear. He’s a different kind of king.
His birth was not only unconventional, but it was also scandalous, to say the least. Mary was pregnant and out of wedlock. This didn’t fit well with the accepted norms of society. She could have paid with her life had Joseph chosen to accuse her of adultery. Growing up with such a past wouldn’t have been easy for Jesus — why then would the King of kings choose such a scandalous birth as his. Maybe, he wanted us to see him and realise that he knows what it means to suffer, to be abused, bullied, ridiculed and mocked. He is the kind of King who knows what his subjects feel — he isn’t the kind who rules from a distance. He lived as one of us.
Yet, he didn’t become one of us. We hate one another, we judge and build walls. He has all authority to judge and yet he befriends sinners and hangs out with them. Such is his influence that his gang of followers included a Zealot and a Tax Collector — one fought against the Romans while the other collaborated with the Romans. He could get enemies to become friends — this is the kind of leader we need in our world today. We don’t need leaders who can help us spot more enemies — we need leaders who can help us become friends.
Jesus preached a different kind of kingdom, where you prayed for your enemies, treated the outcast as your brother and walked the extra mile. Well, Jesus not only preached, but he also lived it out. He washed the feet of all his disciples, including the one who betrayed and sold him off for thirty pieces of silver to the uncomfortable religious rulers who were hungry for his blood. Even in death, he prayed for the forgiveness of those who nailed Him to the cross.
We need leaders who hang out with their subjects, who are willing to listen and available to show love and care. We don’t need leaders who only care for pomp and power.
But what’s the point of all of this in the current environment. Hope! Yes, this small four-letter word on which stands every single human endeavour — hope. Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection give us hope even in a time as dark as this.
Oppression and Suffering aren’t new — kings have misused their power since time immemorial and life has been a struggle yet we have hope because a baby born in a cattle-shed to a carpenter’s family showed a counter-cultural way of living — that defeated hate with love, and started a movement of love that went onto overpower the mighty Roman empire in the next three centuries with the power of truth, the message of forgiveness and a call to love.
With this hope let us celebrate Christmas, pledging to live counter-culturally by pursuing truth at all costs, practising love without barriers, forgiving enemies and making friends. Only then can this nation or any nation for that matter prosper in the true sense of the word. Together we can! Merry Christmas. God bless us all.