Ruining the Christmas Story
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By the one and only Mike Glenn.
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
This is the time of year when people start getting mad at me for ruining the Christmas story for them and their families. I’ve found when I began preaching through the Christmas narratives, I would inadvertently pop somebody’s bubble and leave out their favorite part of the story. Worse, I would tell them their favorite part of the story was never in the story at all.
No, the Little Drummer Boy wasn’t at the manger. Think about it. What mother is going to insist another child bang on a drum while her newborn is trying to sleep.
There was no innkeeper. The innkeeper is never mentioned in Luke. We’re just told there was no room in the inn for Mary and Joseph. We’ve made up the whole story. Remember how mean the innkeeper was? How cruel do you have to be to make a pregnant woman sleep out in the barn? This seems to cause a lot of existential crises for a lot of my church members. After all, some of them played the innkeeper in their church’s Christmas pageant and now, they’ve found out they were never part of the story at all.
And it probably wasn’t a barn. We have a lot of evidence that indicates it most likely was a cave where animals were kept and the lamb, donkey and cow were probably not at the scene. Makes a good story, but probably didn’t happen.
The wise men didn’t arrive until much later. The family was living in a house and Jesus, according to Matthew, was a toddler. That’s why Herod issued the order to kill every child in Bethlehem under the age of two. He wanted to be sure Jesus was killed. Joseph’s sensitivity to the Spirit and his courage to act saved their lives.
This means every nativity scene you’ve ever seen is wrong. Mary and Joseph kneeling serenely close to the manger where Baby Jesus was lying in his manger, surrounded by adoring shepherds and worshipping wise men who had parked their camels on the other side of the sheep and cows. This one seemed to draw the most ire. I’ve found out that people go to great lengths to display their Nativity scenes. In fact, some people have expensive sets from all over the world and when you visit their
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