Christmas Season: Infancy Narratives

What Does Your Christmas Creche Look Like?

The gospels are NOT history; they are a theological reflection on the events of Jesus‘ life that happened years before the gospels were written. None of his actual words were ever recorded at the time of his teaching and preaching, so later disciples wrote down snatches of what they remembered and those were circulated among the various groups of early Christians. There was a remarkable similarity we can sense in those memories. Those memories might have eventually been compiled onto a document called the “Sayings of Jesus”, which could have been a major source of info that the gospel writers relied on when crafting their own narratives, which they crafted and shaped for the specific group of Christians for whom they were intending their own gospel to be used.

We do not know the names of any of the gospel writers, but tradition has assigned names and identities to each gospel writer. Twentieth century biblical scholarship has “debunked” some of those traditional beliefs, based on historical and textual evidence from the gospels themselves. For example, the gospels were arranged in the New Testament according to what people believed was the order in which each was written. The gospel of Matthew was believed to be the first gospel written, but later scholarship has determined that Mark was the earliest gospel.

The gospel according to Mark, the earliest on this literary form, and the shortest, was attributed as the source of the information contained in this narrative, but again, there are only guesses as to his actual identity. Tradition holds that “Mark” might have been one of the followers of Paul , but it is highly unlikely that “Paul’s Mark” actually compiled and edited the writing which was probably completed around 70CE, some forty years after the death of Jesus.

Given the average life span in that time, it is not likely that the author of Matthew was actually one of the twelve. Tradition holds that the source of information (not necessarily the author) for the gospel of Matthew was a tax collector whom Jesus recruited, whose story shows up in the gospel of Matthew.

The gospel according to Luke, the longest gospel of the four, was written about 85CE. The author seems to have been an Greek speaker, who knew the Jewish scriptures in Greek, but may have been a convert to Judaism and then to Christianity. It is thought that he did not know Jesus and was not a Palestinian.

All three have taken the materials handed down through word of mouth or some collected sayings of Jesus and crafted them into three similar stories with very different emphases.

The gospel according to John was put together somewhere between 80 and 110CE, and there may have been a later redaction (edition) as late as 135CE. This is a very different, almost mystical document, and attests to the ”Cosmic” Christ, and it is the gospel coming closest to declaring the divinity of Jesus: (In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God).

Sometimes we tend to conflate the message of each individual gospel into one amalgamated teaching about Jesus, but that does a disservice to the integrity of each individual gospel message. For example, there are only two gospels out of the four that tell the stories of the birth of Jesus (which are called Infancy Narratives), Matthew and Luke. Each narrative seems to have been written by the gospel writer as a prologue to his version of Jesus’ ministry, and each narrative prologue contains the major elements or themes that each gospel writer would go on to develop more fully in the gospel itself.

Luke’s gospel story, the second chapter of which is usually read at Midnight Mass on Christmas Day, very deliberately incorporates elements into the narrative which carry Luke’s most important points. For example, Luke points out the importance of women in Salvation History. The angel went directly to Mary, and it was her decisive “yes” that made Jesus’ birth possible. Mary’s trip to her cousin Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s recognition of the child in Mary’s womb shows the initiative women have taken in believing in Jesus. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus was born in a poor stable; his parents were migrants from another part of the kingdom with no place to stay. Luke’s gospel spells out in so many ways that Jesus came for the poor, the marginalized, the outcast and the stranger. His birth was attended by some of the most reviled members of the culture—shepherds. They were filthy, and not trustworthy, unspeakable, really, yet it was to them that the Angel announced this momentous birth and it was those same deplorable souls who believed. They heard the angelic chorus because the angels were singing to them when no one else ever did. This prologue, and indeed the whole of Luke’s gospel is about how the kingdom of God is radically different, that compassion, inclusion, generosity and welcome must replace judgmentalism, exclusion and greed. Those messages are clear in this narrative as constructed by Luke.

Matthew’s gospel was written to show that Jesus was a true Jew, and that He was fulfilling the prophesies about a promised anointed one. Even nature cooperated with a wondrous star. Matthew saw Jesus as more than a prophet; Jesus was a “new Moses” bringing further refinements on and explanations to the commandments God gave Moses on the mountain. As the new Moses, Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promise to the Jews. In this gospel, we start with the impressive lineage of Jesus, going back through King David to Abraham. This cements Jesus’ place in Jewish culture and history. We proceed to the Annunciation, but with a twist; the angel comes to Joseph to explain God’s plan and gets his approval and cooperation in this enterprise. Joseph, thought his lineage, was part of certain type of Jewish royalty, possible linked to the famous Joseph of the Jewish scriptures. (Joseph’s dreams about Jesus and Herod and his flight to Egypt are very reminiscent of the Joseph of the many-colored coat who was a hero of ages past. It was to Joseph that the angel revealed the name of Jesus (literally, Yahweh is salvation). Joseph took Mary to his home in Bethlehem, which is just outside of Jerusalem, and there she gave birth to a son. The other main players in this narrative are the heroes of today’s feast, the Epiphany. Three wise men (symbolizing all nations) journeyed from the East to Jerusalem, seeking the person to whom a mysterious star had directed them. This is how Herod got into the act, being very paranoid about his precarious position as King of the Jews, and half-mad to boot. When the scribes and pharisees recited for Herod the prophesy that out of Bethlehem would come a leader of the Jews (2 Samuel 5:2), he tried to get the wise men to tell him info on this baby they were looking for, and let him know when they had found him. The wise men found the source of the star and paid homage to Jesus as a great king and source of truth, with precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (It is odd that those gifts never seemed to have advanced this family’s position in life; I wonder what ever became of them…) Again, God intervened and warned the wise men not to return to Herod or tell him anything, and they returned home by avoiding Jerusalem. After the departure of the wise men, Joseph was warned, again in a dream, to flee to Egypt with his new family, to avoid the slaughter of innocent Jewish babies which followed. They stayed there, according to the story, until Herod died, shortly thereafter. So the major theme of this very “Jewish” gospel shows God acting in very decisive ways, through the males in the story to send a Messiah (God’s anointed messenger) to the Jewish people, and everything that happens in this prologue, this infancy narrative, and later in the main body of the gospel show Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s prophecies to the Jews, and show Jesus as a good Jew with respect for Israel’s traditions and lineage. who was a hero of ages past. The appearance of the three wise men, or three “Kings”, emphasizes the importance of this event in the history of Judaism. Th escape of the Holy Family in this chapter is the triumph of good over evil.

So, what’s in your creche? Mine is a mash-up of both stories, with sheep, wise men and the holy family, all decked out in pristine costume… with angels suspended over the entire scene and randomly scattered about the entire room—the better to hear the singing, I guess. Using my imagination, I have added a few folks who were never written into the scene by the gospel writers, such as a hunter/woodcutter, a woman selling bread, and a donkey. The angel holding aloft a shiny star, and perched atop a tall lamp, could resemble somebody from a Broadway musical, and Jesus cleverly switches from the manger to his mother’s arms whenever somebody small wants to play with the figures. No matter how we depict it, celebrate it or remember it from those childhood hymns, we all seem to love this story, with or without its theological implications. Enjoy your creche!