The First Christmas: Myths and Reality
Great article about some common misconceptions about Christ-mas. Here’s a quiz. Are the following true?
1. Mary and Joseph had to travel as quickly as possible to Bethlehem because Mary could have given birth at any moment.
2. The Bethlehem innkeeper was fully booked, and so Mary had to give birth to Jesus in the barn/stall nearby/behind the inn.
3. Initially, this experience must have been frightening and lonely for Mary and Joseph.
4. “The little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.”
5. The angels who appeared to the shepherds had wings.
Here’s the conclusion
- Keep on reading and examining the Scriptures (cp. the Bereans in Acts 17). Let us make sure that we don’t let tradition prevent us from gaining fresh insights from Scripture or from adjusting our theology when this is called for.
- We must be careful not to Gnosticize/Docetize Jesus—as though he didn’t or can’t really identify with us.
- On the other hand, we should make not Jesus’ birth more pitiful or lowly than it actually was.
- We can still celebrate the condescension of Immanuel—God with us—even with these adjustments in our understanding of the first Christmas story.
