These days, Christian people find themselves in the midst of the season of Advent, a season demarcated by the four Sundays leading up to the beloved and well-known stories of Jesus’ birth. These stories constitute a source of joy and celebration for people everywhere, and not just Christians. In our modern age, however, it’s often at this very point that the credibility of the Christian tradition finds itself the object of some seriously skeptical scrutiny. I mean, the biblical witness of an angel of the Lord appearing to some shepherds in a field, the declaration by the angel of a Saviour’s birth - a Saviour described as being wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (of all things!), and then a multitude of the heavenly host praising God - the whole thing really does seem quite incredible, beyond belief. How can we blame the modern mind for being skeptical?
The problem is, though, the skeptic has mistaken the purpose of the story’s author to be history, when really it is Gospel. The purpose of the story’s author, the gospel-writer Luke, is to convey the truth of his experience of the risen, living Christ, and the experience of his community of faith. Luke wrote his gospel many years after Jesus’ birth, but he used the images and metaphors he did to convey the life-changing and healing reality of the living Christ. For Luke and the community of faith to which he was writing, this Jesus of Nazareth had revealed to them and enfolded them in the absolute reality and life-giving presence of the Living God. In Christ, the Living God was with them and within them, loving them and healing them, walking with them every day as dear companion and close friend, who was holy and yet human - one of them - and understanding and forgiving and restoring them to wholeness and to hope. How else would Luke describe the wonder and the truth of that reality? What words and images could he possibly use to convey that truth from the beginning (which was his stated purpose and intention)? What better images than angels and a heavenly host, and the utterly accessible humanity of lowly shepherds and a baby of no status wrapped in swaddling clothes? What images could possibly better describe the truth and intimacy of his experience of God whom he had come to know in Christ Jesus? What language would a modern skeptic convert find today? I think the gospel-writer Luke did well, and his story has maintained the truth and stayed utterly memorable through all these generations. No wonder we still hold the story as Good News!
And the gospel-writer Matthew holds true to the exact same gospel tradition. Wise men, magi, to be sure. And their gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
It’s not by any accident Matthew tells us of these gifts. It’s not by history or by hindsight either. It’s through his witness to the living Christ and his experience of the One he had come to know as king, and priest, and crucified. Gold, the sign of royalty and king; frankincense, the sign of priestly prayer and holy intercession; myrrh, the sign of Jesus’ crucifixion and embalming - all signs of the reality and life that Matthew had experienced and come to know in Jesus. How better to convey the truth of that reality than magi and their gifts?
The Christmas stories beloved by Christians everywhere and by so many others are messages and stories of the truth, stories bearing witness to the healing, loving, saving grace of God who walks with us and dwells in us - a Saviour, dear companion, who is Christ the Lord.
Merry Christmas, everyone! And may the love and truth and deep delight of the Christmas story dwell with you this season and through all the days to come!
