The birth of Jesus, often celebrated by many Protestants and Christians in the West and the East, is usually regarding as a festival of joy. However, beyond the joy and fanfare of this event, is a hidden and dark back story, which I will reflect on in this blog post. (And no, this post is not about the pagan origin).
While I was
brought up not to celebrate the event, I have decided not to exclude myself
from events where Christians reflect on the event or story central to the faith
and recorded in the Christian Scriptures. I have indeed gotten weary of the
rhetoric of "othering"
done by Christians to exclude other Christians, and feel that even Jesus
himself would have gone to a Christmas service in his honour, regardless of the
time and season, even if it was not his birthday. As Matthew 18:20 suggests,
"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them" (NIV).
That said, I
discovered the dark and hidden story behind the nativity scene when I painted a
picture depicting the scene and later told the story to parents and children at
church. Then I attended a carol service with my children and further reflected
on the story. I discovered, that while we often see the nativity as a scene for
celebration, of joy, hope and peace, we ignore the dark back story of exclusion
that precipitated it.
For Mary and
Joseph to have their baby in stable or barn, they were first denied access to
housing. The Bible is silent about the circumstances leading to that
unavailability of housing, especially for a pregnant lady due to give birth. It
is often portrayed that the city was full and perhaps overcrowded at that time.
Yet it seems strange that this would have been Joseph's home city or town and
that he would have virtually no friends or family still living there to stay
with. That he would have to go to an inn, the equivalent of our modern-day
hospital, motel, or hotel, was a sign it itself of something very sad.
There seems to be
a darker side under the story where Joseph had to resort to an inn to provide
housing and shelter for his wife. It wasn't just that Mary and Joseph could not
find a room. It was that friends and relatives of Joseph were not willing to
have them stay with them. Maybe they inquired about the marital status. You
know the way that your relatives and friends would ask you why they were not
invited to the wedding if you showed up at their house with a pregnant lady,
especially within a religious and ceremonial society. Further, the inn keepers
may also have inquired about marital status and rejected room to them based on
the issue on the grounds of "fornication".
This is the dark
back story of religious intolerance where those who were religious felt that
this couple were "sinners" to be denied access to housing suitable
for humans due to the gravity of the perceived sin. Even friends and relatives
were ready to dissociate themselves from their own flesh and blood so that he
would need to wander the streets to find lodging among strangers. That Joseph
would be forced to spend money to secure a room, in an era where home birth by
midwives was more normative than it is today, for his fiancée rather than lodge
for free with those whom he knew for years and with whom he grew up is indeed
sad. No one wanted anything to do with him nor his pregnant fiancée at this
point of need. Could it be so bad that the only room they qualified to access
was a room stinking of animals and animal manure? A far from hygienic place for
bloodletting and delivering a baby?
