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“Silent Night” is one of the most popular Christmas hymns. It is usually sung only in churches where candles are lit. This song describes a baby who “gentle and gentle” who is sleeping undisturbed in Another beloved hymn, “Away in a Manger,” also focuses on the topic of divine peace: it talks about animals making noises. But Christ in the Child is different. “The herds are crying out,” says one verse, “the baby is awake / But little Jesus. He didn’t cry.” Countless paintings hang in the museum that depict the manger scene as tranquil. With Mary staring so beautifully at her calm and still infant.
I don’t have any resentment. Specially for peace seekers And I don’t want to play Scrooge with visions of Jesus making people happy. However, I can’t help but notice how different these depictions of Jesus’ first night with His parents are. Completely different from the first days of most children
Depiction of the Nativity of Christ in “Silent Night” is unrealistic. Because plastic is the decoration that appears on the lawn every December. Staged as a declaration of love at the end of a Hallmark Christmas movie, these versions of the Nativity lack something important: Jesus’ humanity.
Although the Gospel accounts of Christ’s birth do not describe him weeping, But the Gospel of Luke says that Jesus “He grew up,” which suggests that he went through a normal developmental process. When you grow up to be an adult He experiences the usual range of emotions: he cries when a friend dies (John 11:35), feels weary after a long day of travel (John 4:6), and anguishes when he thinks about. his The impending crucifixion (Luke 22:44) The writer of the letter to the Hebrews Looking back on the life of Jesus said he was right “Deceived as we are in all respects. But he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15). As a New Testament scholar I feel confident that Jesus would have behaved like a normal baby.
And as a father, I know that my children How do you behave? My wife and I have four children. And at some point during childbirth I feared for the safety of my wife, child, or both. These babies’ first moments in the world were quiet. They cry and moan. They pee and poop What causes those tears? Are they cold? hungry? Need a new diaper or just physical contact to hold and comfort? We don’t know. I imagine that Mary and Joseph felt similar confusion.
The Christmas story is about how God became a child. But not in the sense that the baby has all the knowledge and power of God squeezed into the baby’s body. It is not about divine transfiguration. It is about sacred limitations. humility and weakness A crying, unstable Jesus who soiled himself like any other child. Capture the main miracles that Christmas offers. for christian God has become one of the people in a hungry, cold, dirty, and often lonely world. He is not separated from us. He is one of us When God joins our numbers He fills us with fresh dignity. The church can never properly divert attention away from the needy. whether it is a baby or an adult Because the Church worships a God who impoverishes herself.
Quiet might not be the best way to describe that first Christmas. But there is something about these hymns that gets it right. Jesus did not speak actual words. In a world fed up with religious rhetoric Christmas is a celebration of action. That act was a display of divine weakness towards a child who was completely helpless. God does not wrap himself in strength and power. but covered himself with weakness. The idea that true power does not come from using it. But in abandoning it It seems as unbelievable in the 21st century as it did in the first place. said differently Most Christians are not ready to accept the implications of the Christmas story.
Today, many Americans including Christians Believe that strength and power come from money. political influence or military power That is the reason why Christians must be comfortable holding the office of president and maintaining a state of temporary support: to be protected from the gathering darkness. What good can a baby do against enemies at home and abroad? What good is a manger for Christian patriots?
The Church has lost its connection with the tears of infants and the moans of adults. Christians are often more than any other voting group locked in the same national struggle for power as everyone else. Christmas reminds Christians like me that we should abandon the pursuit of worldly power and entrust our future to the God who sheds tears for us. Both at His birth and later on the cross.
Our lives and our world are not an ocean of calm. There is crying in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan; at the border; in the city and in the countryside Perhaps contemplating a frightened Mary. Joseph the Suffering And a weeping Jesus will allow us to abandon our own façade. If God is willing to clothe himself with weakness, That may set us free to recognize our own weaknesses.
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