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Thoughts on Christmas From a Lapsed Christian
The truth about the birth of Jesus
When I was a kid we had a small Nativity scene that my mother set up every Christmas. Over time characters got lost, broken, or replaced, resulting in a disco-glittered angel perched on the manger roof above one freakishly large wise man, a miniature Mary, an armless Joseph — formerly a shepherd — and a chewed-up cat toy representing the baby Jesus.
This idiosyncratic arrangement is a useful metaphor for the Biblical story of the birth of Jesus. It’s an event that can’t be understood literally; indeed there’s no real evidence that it happened at all.
The four gospels which survived the textual purges of early Christianity to become canon treat the Nativity inconsistently.
Two skip over the birth story altogether — the mystic John speaks of Jesus’ emergence at the beginning of the universe but not his human birth, while Mark starts his narrative with Jesus’ baptism.
Luke and Matthew both place the holy family in Bethelehem— a location meant to establish Jesus’ bona fides as a descendant of King David — but agree on little else.
Luke tells us of the overcrowded inn, the manger, and the shepherds who are alerted by angels to the presence of the Messiah. He mentions no wise men. A few…
