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Christory
The Christmas story is a beautiful one and is set aside to remind us that God saw fit to send us a wonderful incarnation that attempted to give us direction and send us into the next step in our evolution. It needs to be remembered that in order to be accepted as an equal, his only begotten son had to be born in a humble locale.
From this humble locale, there have been generations of mythologies and legends that have been accepted as facts about the lowly birth of the Christ child.
The images of Christ’s birth and the imagery we have in our minds eye are mythological. It is a popular fiction that has been presented by various artists and of course, produced by Hallmark with all of the cartoonish beauty that can be created by those who have talent and have blessed us with their artistic sensibilities.
If we were to set our clocks back 2000 years, we would probably see less of a Hallmark card version of the nativity and more of a grim reality that would test the normalcy bias and the image and action parameters of what we sugarcoat during the Christmas season.
Many people forget the area where Mary and Joseph lived was religiously conservative, more so than what most Christians are today. When it became too obvious to hide the pregnancy, the people would have been very critical of it and probably would have debated whether or not to stone her and Joseph for what appeared to be fornication.
The beautiful paintings showing Mary in beautiful robes and a halo of purity, probably would not have sat well with the minds of her contemporaries. They would have probably judged her as being a woman living in sin – cursed and shamed. I am sure they were talking behind her back. They most certainly wouldn’t have called her a virgin.
There have also been Christmas specials that are notorious for spinning mythologies about the Christ child that are great for Christmas legend but are too much for those who have read the Bible and those who also know when logic is stretched to make a good Christmas story.
There has been a great deal of effort to sanitize Jesus birth. In the nativity scenes, the animals surrounding the Christ child look on in awestruck wonder. Mary is made to look rested and happy and everyone represented in every nativity scene and artistic image shows men and women gathered around a glowing child with well pressed clothes. Jesus is in a perfect cradle with a nice comfortable straw bed.
The truth is, while we put our little barns or stables near the gingerbread houses on the fireplace mantle, we pay no mind to the fact that stables, at least the one that Jesus was born in, was quite literally a cave.
The Quran states that Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem, as does the Bible. It has often been argued that Jesus was either born in a “guest quarters” outside the inn or a cave.
Both the Quran and the Bible say that he was born in quarters outside an inn. The Gospel of Luke account states that Mary gave birth to Jesus and laid him in a manger “because there was no place for them in the inn,” but does not say exactly where Jesus was born.”
In the second Century, the Catholic Saint Justin the Martyr stated that Jesus had been born in a cave outside the town. In Mary and Mariology it says, “The Church of the Nativity inside the town, built by St. Helena, contains the cave-manger site traditionally venerated as the birthplace of Jesus.”
The floor of this “manger” would have consisted of mud straw and manure.
Some people feel guilty about spreading myths about Santa Claus, but every year we spread myths about Jesus’ birth.
We view the Nativity in most Christmas or biblical movies as it is happening and not what allegedly happened before Mary gave birth to the Christ child.
On one hand we hear that Mary was ”great with child” meaning that she was due to give birth and yet had to flee from Nazareth to Bethlehem. That is a 94 mile journey by donkey.
So it would have taken a long amount of time to get there and frankly it would have been hard for a mother ready to give birth to make such a long journey. However, we are fed a bit of mythology every year about Christ’s birth and we continue to spread it. I am sure that people think that the spin on Christmas is as literal as biblical script.
One of the biggest myths that have been supported and quoted as fact by just about everyone is the story of the three kings or wise men. There is no biblical verse or scripture that states that the wise men were at the manger the night of Jesus’ birth.
While traditional movies and nativity scenes always show three wise men or kings visiting the infant Jesus on the night of his birth.
Mathew’s biblical account does not number the unnamed “wise men”, only naming the three gifts presented as gold, frankincense and myrrh. Also it is written that these wise men arrived when Jesus was older, quite possibly even a toddler. In Mathew, Jesus is “described not as a baby, but a child and residing in a house, not a stable, with only “his mother” present.”
It is also important to point out when the angles arrived to announce the birth of the Christ child, they gave their good tidings of great joy to shepherds as they watched their flocks in the cold cruel night. The job of the shepherd was considered a job of the poor. Many of these shepherds were considered Gentiles whom the very religious and pious saw as unclean—they were considered to be lowlifes and were seen unworthy to even be seen with let alone share a table and eat with.
Heavenly messengers figure prominently in the Christmas story. However, there is something about angels that you might not know. Angels are mostly seen as religious icons during the holidays but did you know that angels are one of the only images at Christmas that you will see in pagan and secular celebrations?
The reason this is the case is because an angel in history is depicted as a heavenly conduit with the divine, and has also been seen as an agent of reverence or the purveyor of chaos.
Throughout the world, beliefs about angels cover a wide spectrum, from one extreme, that they are merely thought forms and move about without detection to another extreme where they do have bodies without souls and are merely agents or soldiers that do the will of their master.
The higher angels, of course, answer to God and the fallen angels answer to the Devil or Satan.
The idea of angels being beautiful with wings is merely an artist’s idea and in most historic and biblical accounts angels have been powerful and their faces have struck fear in mankind. Angels of the past had been described as resembling serpents or animals with large black eyes, with the strength of lions.
In the ancient Jewish texts, angels were constantly spoken of in Garden of Eden as being serpentine, upright walking beings that would sparkle in the sunlight.
In the familiar Christmas passage from Luke, we read:
“And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were sore afraid.”
Now reading only Luke we see that the shepherds fell to their knees and covered their faces when they saw the angel. The angel told them not to fear for there was great news about a child from god born in Bethlehem.
When angels in glory appeared to the shepherds to announce Christ’s birth, they gave as a sign that Jesus would be wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Now, at the time of Christ, the mythologies that have been spun have made the use “swaddling clothes” seem like a normal occurrence for babies. The culture though did not dress children in “swaddling clothes” that would be inappropriate.
That is why the sign of the clothing was important.
Travelers in Jesus time, when taking long trips, would sometimes wrap a gauze-like cloth around their waists in which to wrap a corpse in case they or someone in their party died en route. This would allow them to preserve the body until they could reach an acceptable burial place. These grave dressings were referred to as “swaddling clothes.” And the King James version says that after Jesus was born, his mother “wrapped him in swaddling clothes.”
“Swaddling clothes” are what we would call a body bag today. It is ironic that the clothes he was dressed in at birth were the same symbolic linens that he was buried in when he was place in the cave owned by Joseph of Arimathea.
When Jesus was a young adult, he confronted the religious leaders of his day over their pharisaical legalism; they chided him about his birth. In the Book of John chapter 8:41 — the men were cruelly calling Jesus and illegitimate child when they stated:
“You are doing the works of your own father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.” In the King James Bible, the rebuking of Jesus was even harsher: “Ye do the deeds of your Father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.”
From their perspective, Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah screamed illegitimacy, and that certainly didn’t fulfill their expectations of the coming Mashiach.
The images of Christ and Mary find themselves in the oddest of places and crosses form in anomalous simulacra on walls and blended light inspiring those who believe the image is more powerful than the reality. In truth, it probably is but it can be to the detriment of faith when we eventually realize the image of God we are comfortable with is far from the image that makes the reality.
You don’t have to believe that Jesus is the son of God to look at the images of him and not be moved. That is what the whole show is about. It’s the salesmanship of the whole affair.
The truth is not popular. It isn’t neatly placed in a box or displayed on a shroud. It begins with alleged existence of a man that has been made into “Super God” by artistic license.
Jesus was born in the lowest of circumstances, which makes his ministry all the more compelling.
Jesus was never a white man with a beard standing tall and proud like the Greek impressionists have shown us. He was not a great presence that had the appearance of cleanliness with bright white robes and straight teeth. He probably did not have perfect eyebrows or even perfect skin.
The romanticism of Jesus gives way to the delusion that he had to have been perfect because he was a God. Yet, we forget Jesus lived as a human and revealed his true image after his transfiguration and resurrection.
If Jesus appeared as the art exhibits depict him, then there would be no doubt as to who he was. He would have commanded a larger following. But he didn’t and at his time of dire need he was denied by his disciples and rejected by his people. He was left to die a criminal and was buried in a borrowed sepulcher.
It is so easy to buy a picture of Jesus and believe he is your lord. However, you must contemplate your place in Christianity if you were all of a sudden beamed into the presence of a man whose appearance looked more like a hermit than the son of God.
Would you worship Him then?
If you woke up tomorrow and found out that Jesus Christ was a short, filthy man, who was always made to look foolish by Romans and detractors, would you follow him?
Your answer is personal to you, only yours, and only you can feel what you feel in your heart.
With all that, he has represented over the last 2000 years perhaps it is time to rethink the image of the Christ child who had an exemplary life despite the obstacles that were placed before Him even to his death.
Jesus was beaten and stripped naked, after which He suffered a tortuous criminal’s death. And he endured this so he could save mankind from their sins. This redemption wasn’t just necessary for those evil and wicked people in Jesus’ time, but also for those who choose to believe today. What this means is for the Christian world – the sins of humanity caused him to be born for the crucifixion.
If the romanticism of Jesus is what fuels your faith, then perhaps it will serve you until you find out the truth. Or get over the Hallmark card version of the nativity. Jesus was a champion of the underdog. He was seen in the company of tax collectors and other undesirables.
The young child in Bethlehem that was born in a lowly stable, was ridiculed as a young adult and was made out to be a fool and marginalized for thinking outside the box.
Do we really know who Jesus is? Do we really need an embellished picture or greeting card to give us faith?
After all, if a man with features that resembled a hermit could convince 12 men to follow him and countless others, then perhaps he was more than just a fallen prophet.
Text – Check out Ground Zero Radio with Clyde Lewis Live Nightly @ http://www.groundzeromedia.org
Source: http://www.groundzeromedia.org/christory21840-2/
