The real Christmas

I was invited, by my supervisor, to attend last night's fellowship group's meeting at my placement church. I thought this was a committee - the people that organise the coffee mornings, Burns suppers etc in a church. No, turns out it is a group of members of the congregation who get together to discuss a topic. Well, I hope that's what they are, as that's what happened last night.

The topic was "The Real Christmas". Partly, what evidence do we have and what does it mean to us. My supervisor began by asking the group to tell the Christmas story. I began, then we went round the table, adding details.

One of the ground described the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem - on a donkey, of course. Err, well, there's no evidence for this in the scriptures. Besides, a heavily pregnant woman would not have been able to ride a donkey. Personally, I think the donkey's come into the story (when I don't know) to link Jesus arriving in the world (in Mary's womb, riding a donkey) with Him entering Jerusalem riding a donkey on Palm Sunday.

Next - how many wise men were there? Most of the group (except my supervisor and me) said 3. The bible only states there were 3 gifts, not how many wise men there were. That's fair enough, but in that society (as with many societies today), when a King was born, noble men from neighbouring countries would visit and present gifts. It would have been pretty bad form if more than 3 wise men had turned up without some kind of gift for the new King.

Right, we're getting towards the end of the main story. "How long after Jesus' birth did the wise men turn up?" asked my supervisor. I suggested up to 2 years, given Herod ordered all first born boys under 2 to be killed. That is apparently 1 of many theories (I was so pleased I wasn't talking total nonsense - that wouldn't be unusual, believe me!).

It may have been the wise men appeared shortly after the birth and Herod wanted to make sure any rival King was exterminated. Okay but the census, the reason why Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem, wouldn't have been a 5 minute job. It would have taken a while for Caesar Augustus' order to be issued and for Quirinius to do anything about it. Then, there's Mary and Joseph's travelling time and the time to actually count the number of people in Bethlehem.

After the biblical facts had been established, we inevitably got onto the festival of Christmas. That's what it's supposed to be. As I said in an earlier post (here), the fact God chose to become human and to be born, not just appear an adult human, the most amazing thing about Christmas.

Of course, I do wonder why Christmas is so important. That's not to say I don't love it, but Easter is the most important part of the Christian calendar.Without the resurrection at Easter God's promise to His people wouldn't have been fulfilled. Death would not have been overcome. The oppression of sin would still hang over us.

Oh, and I wouldn't be writing this blog...