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You’ve all heard the Christmas Story many times
and seen it acted out over and over in many different church and
media venues. You have seen Mary and Joseph on that cold
December night in a cozy little stable with baby Jesus snuggled in a
little bassinet-type manger, all wrapped in a white baby
blanket. Then, you see the shepherds, fresh from keeping watch over
their flocks in the field by night, kneeling before the
manger. Finally, the Three Wise Men arrive on their camels, bearing
their three fancy gifts and kneel down to present them to baby
Jesus. The story is beautiful, BUT, it is full of myths, outside of
Biblical reality.
First of all, Jesus was not born in December;
the sheep and shepherds were NOT out in the fields in winter. In
that part of the world the sheep weren’t put out to pasture until
lambing time, usually in the spring, maybe April or May. For the
first three centuries Christians refused to celebrate Jesus’
birthday, stating that celebrating deities’ birthdays was a
pagan ritual, was reserved for false gods. The few who insisted
on celebrating it lumped it in with the Catholic Epiphany, on
January 6. Even the Puritans who came to America in the 1600s
forbade the celebration. No records of Jesus’ birth existed showing
the actual date or time of year. In the 300s a move to celebrate His
birth gained strength, with speculation about the date being March
25th, April 18th or 19th, May 20th or 28th. Other dates were
speculated as well. The eventual choice of December 25 reflects a
convergence of the concern about pagan gods and the church's
identification of God's son with the celestial sun. December 25
already hosted two other related festivals: natalis solis invicti
(the Roman "birth of the unconquered sun"), and the birthday of
Mithras, the Iranian "Sun of Righteousness" whose worship was
popular with Roman soldiers. The winter solstice, another
celebration of the sun, fell just a few days earlier. Seeing that
pagans were already exalting deities with some parallels to the true
deity, church leaders decided to commandeer the date and introduce a
new festival. However, Western Christians didn’t start celebrating
Christmas on December 25 until 336, after Emperor Constantine had
declared Christianity the empire's favored religion. Some of the
pagan celebrations included gift-giving and decorating with greenery
and lights (candles).
The Magi (Wise Men) never went to the manger
(they visited Jesus in a house) because they didn’t even
get to Bethlehem until two years after they first saw the star
appear in the sky, when Jesus was born. You can see that information
recorded in Matthew Chapter 2, verses 1-16. The Bible does NOT say
there were THREE of them; it just highlights the three expensive
gifts they gave to Jesus. Magi were scientists, of sorts, and
usually traveled in large groups for safety reasons…probably ten or
more plus a hundred or so assistants, servants, etc. No doubt, those
expensive gifts provided the money Mary and Joseph needed to escape
to Egypt to protect Jesus from King Herod.
So, the myths reign supreme and it would be
fruitless to try to change the whole world to eliminate them. My
point here is that tradition is certainly
not always truth.
Common Sense Application
Christians should continue celebrating
Christmas as you have been. However, understand that the important
thing is the significance of Jesus’ birth…not the details purported
to be facts.
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