Lord and King? Not So Much: The True Meaning of Christmas
This is the time of year when many celebrate the life of Yeshua ben Yosef (Jesus of Nazareth), a radical Jewish prophet, non-violent resistance leader, and feminist healer in first century Israel/Palestine (Judea and Galilee). It is one of history’s most bizarre outcomes that he came to be seen by many as the unique “son of God” and that one of the world’s major religions is based on the apotheosis of this peasant activist who spent only a few years as a traveling prophet and preacher.
The execution of a charismatic leader is a heartbreaking dashing of hopes for a social movement. It often happens that the legacy of such a leader is enhanced by fictional accounts of miracles and other wondrous deeds, but few are situated at a historical, cultural and geographical crossroad that enables postmortem divinity.
For anyone who challenges the religious and political leadership of their time, accuses the wealthy of greed and selfishness, and attacks the (temple) banking system — all while organizing and attending to the needs of the disadvantaged, the good they do in life is oft interred with their bones. Not entirely true in the case of Jesus, but still too much true.
In a few decades after his death he became a god-man, a “king” and the way to eternal life. The religion Jesus taught was replaced by a new religion “about” Jesus.
In less than three centuries the religion about Jesus became the legitimating superstructure of the Roman empire and would later serve the same function for European kings. It would also fuel crusades, other religious wars and genocides . It became mandatory to kill in the name of a religious figure who personified non-violence and preached against nationalism and ethnocentrism.
But we don’t have to accept the distortions of his life and message. Anyone who has read the gospels with an understanding of myth-making can recognize the miracle birth, signs in the heavens, the wise men bringing gifts, and the miraculous escape from the king who fears the child who could replace him. The insistence on divine incarnation trivializes what Jesus recognized — that every birth is sacred. All children need us to bring them gifts so they can experience joy and learn to see well beyond their culture’s boundaries of thinkable thought.
Jesus was a dangerously effective social healer and activist and that’s why he died, not to atone for our sins (please!) but because he was a threat to the social order of a colonized society and to the empire that controlled it.
To follow in his footsteps we would do the same work — speak truth to power, comfort the afflicted, and commit to non-violent resistance to plutocracy, fascism and empire.
