The People Journal

The Christmas I never noticed

Posted by: Jim Mondry

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 1:36 am

I’ve been fascinated with the Christmas story this year. It started with the usual stuff running around in my head (influences, stuff I’m reading, things I make up that I believe to be true) and has helped me see that the Christmas story is a fascinating story. (The thing with Epiphanies, is that while you may finally understand something, it’s probably been said long before, it much better words).

Initially, I was thinking about the Christmas story, and thought it was tired – it seems like a bad sitcom. It starts with a couple who are near getting married, and the girl gets pregnant. Then, unfortunately they need to go travelling away from their family, for the census. When they get to Bethlehem, all the rooms are booked up and the only place they could sleep, without sleeping out in the street, was in a barn. Then, to top it all off Mary goes into labour (darn bumpy donkey rides!). But then, it all works out when the shepherds come, and the wise men come bearing gifts, and the angels are singing overhead. I didn’t realize how much of my culture I was imposing on this story.

The first thing that never crossed my mind, was: why weren’t Mary and Joseph travelling with family? If everyone had to go to their birthplaces and place of ancestry, I think it would be safe to assume that there would be someone in the same family travelling from Galilee to Bethleham. It’s pretty obvious why it plays out the way it does: to everyone else, it would have looked like Mary had sex (willingly or not, but that didn’t matter in those days), and thus was less than dirt.

The next thing that never crossed my mind, was about Mary and Joseph staying at an inn. In modern times, when people travel, they usually stay at hotels, so I didn’t think anything of this. But, really, if you were going to see family (or even if you were going somewhere near where your family lived), you probably would stay with your family. I learned recently that Inn Keepers were considered people who are “honourless” – without honour. That’s not to say they were bad people, but they didn’t have a part in the Honour system that made up the social heirarchy of the time. To stay at an inn, you would typically be someone who had no family, or no honour (due to poor choices, or just unfortunate circumstances), otherwise you would stay with your family. Family was huge (and for many people still is) for those 2000 years ago. They only way Mary and Joesph would have been staying at the inn is that they were either kicked out of the family, or didn’t want to face the family, and try and explain the holy baby. Its quite possible that the inn keeper himself knew the disgrace upon these two and wouldn’t even let them stay in the inn (or maybe he was just selfish and didn’t want to run the risk of dealing with the mess of child birth in one of his rooms).

Next, Angels appeared to Shepherds. Again, with the honour system, you would expect a King to come and meet with the local King. In this case, Herod, and/or the chief priests of the temple would have been at the top of the list. Shepherds, while not honourless, certainly weren’t very high in the heirarchy of honour. God just sidesteps what we would expect, and finds the lowest shepherds (think of the janitor stuck working the nightshift) to announce his comming.

The final thing that I have never thought much of was the Magi. I’ve heard that they may have been taught Judiasim from Daniel (or at least through his lineage). They may have just been mystics for all I know. But what I find facinating, is that these people see a Star in the sky, and realize they’re to follow it. I would assume that they have seen many stars, and I don’t think that they were the kind of people who would follow every unique star wondering “I wonder what’s under that”. Something must have been special with what they saw. Yet, no one in Bethlehem, or Jerusalem, or in all of Judea saw this star. It would have been right near them, right under their noses, but they couldn’t see it. It took outsiders to see that something special was happening (whether they arrived shortly after Jesus’ birth, or a year or two later, I don’t think it matters – the point is still clear).

This is all to say I’m beginning to realize that the Christmas story is a fascinating, many layered story. There’s heartbreak, there’s struggle, there is hope, and even a little bit of resolution. I’ve just been missing the signs all along.

And really, I am amazed that it seems like the point of this story is God comming to Earth and spitting on our systems of social heirarchy. God clearly wants nothing to do with it, and I think that’s a powerful start to Jesus’ story.

One Response to “The Christmas I never noticed”

joani Says:
November 27th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
I find your insight of the Christmas story quite resounding of our culture.I also see the wrong idea of following the so called stars in media. Even our own families say they dont have any room at their inn. It is the same system of heirarchy, I get angry and spit on it too.
On that note I have alot of work to do,so I wont go on. Keep writing your thought provoking words, and challenging our short sightedness.
Ikosi Manito kisagihig