Christmas Stories as Pointers to Revival
Photo by SHVETS production
In the final reflection of this 4-part series, I am reflecting on how the Christmas stories are subversive reminders about the true meaning of revival in the New Testament.
Holding a candle in the dark during a Christmas Eve service evokes in so many of us a nostalgic yearning and hope for a different kind of world.
This hope is not just for those raised within Christianity. It is a deep human yearning to live in a world in Shalom with itself and within creation for all of humanity. It is deeply part of what it means to be human. The question is, and always has been, what mode do we use to attain Shalom? Who do we follow?
Shalom is not just an absence of war; it is a type of universal flourishing of wholeness and delight in which all of creation's natural needs are satisfied. It is the Old Testament definition of revival, salvation is the foundation of Yahweh’s covenant with Yahweh’s people and it's the New Testament’s definition of the Kingdom of God.
It’s also the hope to which the Christmas stories are subversively pointing us towards.
Like the tower of Babel, when we read these stories the way they were intended to be heard, we find that they were not intended to be heard or read as factual or historical events. To do so, would be to completely miss the point, in the same way that insisting on the historical factuality of the vineyard owner or the prodigal son, would be to miss the point of Jesus’s parables.
The scarcity of historical information in these accounts means that rather than throwing them out as pure, made-up fiction as some will do, we should attempt to understand their symbolism and to ask what kind of stories they are and why Matthew and Luke chose to include these stories in their gospel accounts.
A different kind of story
The vast majority of contemporary mainstream scholars agree that the writers of Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2 were not intending to write fact or fable, but a different kind of story altogether, historical parable.
Parables were Jesus’ most distinctive way of teaching. It’s a way of using language metaphorically that gives a surplus of meaning. Jesus’ parables were subversive, or rebellious, in that they challenged the status quo and shook up the way people saw the world and Yahweh.
Mini-Theologies
Most Christians know that the writers of Matthew and Luke tell different stories about Jesus' birth. Even despite some of the glaring inconsistencies and historical impossibilities (such as a worldwide Roman census), we often see them as simply providing different angles of the same story. This is why, when watching a nativity play, we blend all the scenes into one combined narrative.
Yet, the story wasn't meant to be told in a uniform way. The intentional differences in the narratives were meant to provide different perspectives to the Jesus story.
They are essentially a mini-intro or summary of each gospel. Each gospel is a mini theology attempting to inform their communities about the meaning of Jesus’ life and the importance that Jesus had for them.
For example, for Matthew, Jesus is the new Moses, hence the comparisons of Herod with Pharoah, the killing of the babies, and Mary and Joseph’s escape to Egypt. For Luke, Jesus is the new Adam and the restored human.
Why did they include the birth stories if they were not historically factual?
Lord, Divine, Son of God, Bringer of Peace and Savior of the World, God from God, Liberator, Redeemer.
Every single one of these titles that angelic messengers gave to Jesus in Luke’s story belonged first, not to Jesus, but to Caesar Augustus.
In the 1st century, Rome had reinvented itself as an imperial monarchy and held its power as all imperial powers do, through four interwoven strands of domination: military, economic, political and ideological. The first communities of Jesus did not have any of these sources of power, but they were able to counter ideology with Ideology or theology with theology.
They also knew that doing so would be high treason.
And they did it anyway.
In order understand what many of these terms or stories meant when the gospel writers took them from Augustus and applied them to Jesus, we first understand what they meant when they were applied to Augustus.
The Battle between the Kingdom of God & The Kingdom of Rome
In this context, the term Kingdom is not about geographically space. It's a mode of economic distribution, a type of human organization, and a program for world order and peace.
The Kingdom of Rome and the Kingdom of God have two different visions or programs for global peace: the empire seeks harmony through domination and force, while the Kingdom God, or the way of Yahweh that the prophets and Jesus point us toward, pursues shalom through nonviolent justice.
Both announce a gospel of peace on earth and proclaim it as a new creation, a whole new start for the human race. And both link that gospel to the divine conception of a predestined savior: Jesus vs Augustus. It is this continuous clash of visionary programs for our world that is the context for Matthew and Luke’s Christmas stories.
Kingdom of God
We know from many of the Old Testament stories, particularly Babel, how Yahweh feels about empire and its impact this type of power has on the whole of creation.
Through-out the whole of the Old Testament Yahweh, through the prophets are calling Israel back to the covenant with creation and reminding of them of their mission to extend the garden of shalom outward.
Genealogies, Conception & Birthday Celebrations
While there are many contrasting ideologies between Rome and the Kingdom of God, which you can find in Crossan and Borg’s book, The First Christmas, below are two examples that clearly contrast these two competing theologies.
Genealogies: These are not historical, but subversive and prophetic, presenting Jesus as the alternative Son of God to Caesar Augustus, who was declared the divine Son of God through his own genealogy.
Virginal Conception: Jewish traditional divine conceptions usually involve elderly or barren parents, which are more verifiably divine than a virginal conception. Yet, the Christmas stories deviate from this tradition in order to counter Roman divine conception tales in which divine conception involves a deity with a human. Son of God titles were only given to humans who provided an extraordinary service to the world, usually after their death, except for the case of Augustus.
Therefore, the political message is clear to the first hearer’s and to us; Jesus is the extraordinary human who has provided a transcendental service to humanity, not Caesar.
Birthday Announcements: These contrasts, says Crossan, are between the birthdays of Augustus and Jesus, the nativity of two saviors, each claiming the gospel about the new creation of a peaceful world.
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” -Luke 2:8-20
The good news about the birthday of a divine child who will save the world from destruction by establishing permanent peace. -Inscription from Priene about Augustus, currently found in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum-
The political message is clear to the first hearer’s and to us; The way of Jesus will save the world from destruction, not the way of the Caesar’s of the world.
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On this, I return to my first reflection in response to our hope for revival amid the current climate of environmental degradation and escalating violence.
Rather than asking if different movements of worship are experiences of revival, I believe the better question that the stories of the Bible are pointing us to is who have we been committing our lives and worship to
The way of Babylonian & Roman religion -- harmony and personal security through victory, or to the way of Jesus and Yahweh-- universal flourishing through justice?
Order found in empire, or in Yahweh’s covenant?
Domination or dominion?
The four-week period of Advent before Christmas that we’ve just passed through, and the upcoming six-week period of Lent before Easter are intended to be times of penance and life change for Christians. Penance for giving our allegiance to the kingdoms of Babylon and Rome, and preparation for returning to the way of Yahweh by Palm Sunday.
Collectively re-aligning our citizenship will be the beginning of revival and the end of Gehenna.
God without us will not; we without God, cannot. -St. Augustine-
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References & Suggested Readings
Borg, Marcus & Crossan, Dominic, The First Christmas: What the gospels really teach about Jesus's Birth