Yuletide wonderings

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." (Matthew 2:1-2)

When you look at those two verses, you will see that they are contained within what is really just one sentence -- a sentence that evokes some of the largest and most important mysteries in all of history.

We are accustomed to nativity scenes showing the Magi as three wise men positioned near Mary and Joseph, gazing down upon the infant Jesus. A famous carol describes them in the first person: "We three kings of Orient are / bearing gifts we traverse afar / field and fountain, moor and mountain / following yonder star."

But nowhere in the Bible does it say there were three of them. What it says is that when the Magi arrived where Jesus was, they "presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh." This mention of three gifts apparently gave rise to the notion that they must have been three men.

The image of the Magi seeing Jesus as an infant is almost certainly wrong, for the Bible says "the star went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was." (emphasis mine)

A fair reading of the biblical text is that the Star of Bethlehem, whatever is was, appeared in the sky when Mary gave birth to Jesus; that some men in "the east" saw it and were aware of what it signified; that they then traveled a great distance, using the star as a kind of celestial guidepost; and they finally arrived to see Jesus after so much time had passed that the word "baby" no longer applied.

However, the specific number of Magi and specific age of the young Jesus are but piddling curiosities compared to the larger mysteries.

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Who were the Magi and where did they come from?

They were obviously wise, for they knew the meaning of the star. But how did they know it?

They were evidently not Jewish, so why did they grasp the meaning of the star and actual Jews did not?

Was the star even visible to anyone else, or was it revealed only to the eyes of the Magi? And if it was revealed only to the Magi, we are back to asking: Why them?

And where exactly in "the east" were the Magi's homes, for it seems like they came not from just on the other side of the Dead Sea, but from way to the east. Many scholars believe the Magi hailed from Persia (approximately 850 miles away) and many believe that at least one of them hailed from Piravom, India (more than 4,000 miles away). Doesn't this make the question loom even larger: How did they know what the Star of Bethlehem was, and why were they looking for it?

And by the way, what exactly was the Star of Bethlehem? Was it a comet? A supernova? An alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, like the one that will occur next Monday for the first time in eight centuries? Was it an alignment of Jupiter and Venus?  None of the above?

I get the impression that most people think it was some sort of heavenly body whose position in the sky shifted somewhat from night to night -- as is the case with all heavenly bodies other than the North Star -- however my take is different. To my ears, a "star" appearing at an appointed time and going "ahead" of the Magi to guide them sounds like a carbon copy (if not an outright recurrence) of the pillar of fire from Exodus 13:21, which had previously led the Hebrews by night during their long journey from Egypt 1,300 years before. I am shocked that I never hear this speculated about, but surely I'm not the only person to notice the parallel.

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Judaism and Christianity both hold that the god of the Bible, aka the god of Israel, is the one true god. His name was revealed to Moses as four ancient Hebrew consonants, YHWH, and its pronunciation/spelling in English has been handed down as Yahweh.

Belief in a Messiah flows from multiple Old Testament verses. Intriguingly, a similar belief is also visible if you glimpse through the lenses of Hinduism (which talks of a final avatar descending to the material world) and Buddhism (which talks of various bodhisattvahs opting to reincarnate in the material world until they have accomplished their goal of helping others attain nirvana).

Christianity holds that Yahweh is a trinity, meaning he is one deity who acts through three distinct personas: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Son is manifested by Yahweh entering the material world in human form, which he did 2,000 years ago when he took the name Jesus and presented himself as the promised Messiah.

Christianity further claims that Jesus's appearance as the Messiah cemented God's offer of salvation to all of humankind, as had always been God's plan, and that Jesus will return again at some point in the future.

Christianity affirms that Jesus's divinity was proved by him accepting the most excruciating punishment imaginable, that of death by scourging and crucifixion -- the very word "excruciating" is derived from "cruc," which is Latin for cross -- and coming back to life in the same human body three days later.

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Based on reason combined with historical evidence, I believe that the resurrection of Jesus did take place. But opining about that specific topic is not the purpose of this post, and could obviously take several books' worth of space. For right now, I am simply going to toss out the name Dennis Prager and then turn to some interesting passages from the Bible.

Prager is a devout Jew. Although he does not believe in the divinity of Jesus, he is a big fan of Christianity and describes it as "a divinely inspired religion to lead people to the god of Israel." I am an American mutt who does believe in the divinity of Jesus, and I wholeheartedly agree with Prager's assessment of my faith.

It is true that, in Deuteronomy, God tells the Hebrews they are "chosen" by him from among "all the peoples on the face of the earth." 

It is also true that in Genesis, when speaking to Noah, God refers to "the covenant I have established between me and all life on earth." Also in Genesis, he tells Abraham that "all peoples on earth will be blessed." (emphasis mine)

Much later in history, in Isaiah, God tells the Hebrews that they are to be "a light for the Gentiles" and that "my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."

Although the Egyptians enslave the Hebrews, that does not stop God from assisting the Egyptians by warning Pharaoh of the coming famine, so that they can prepare for it during the preceding years of plenty. Nor does it stop God, in Isaiah, from calling the Egyptians "my people" and vowing to "bless" them.

God refers to Cyrus II, the pagan king of Persia, as his "anointed."

The Assyrians of Nineveh were behaving wickedly, and God was so concerned for them that he ordered Jonah to travel there and minister to them.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells the disciples: "I am the good shepherd...I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen."

And that passage about different sheep from different pens seems all the more tantalizing when you consider another account, one which appears in the gospels of both Mark and Luke. In that account, the disciples are troubled to see a stranger performing exorcisms in Jesus's name. That must have seemed sacrilegious to them, so they attempted to stop him; but when they reported this to Jesus himself, they were surprised to hear him respond by saying "do not stop him." Jesus proceeded to explain that "whoever is not against us is for us," and "anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will surely not lose their reward."

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No, God is not an ethnocentrist. He is not some petty bureaucrat dispensing benefits based on demographic bean-counting. He does not bestow favors on any group(s) of humans at the expense of any other group(s) of humans.

God's hand is always outstretched to all, waiting for us to accept it by extending our own and putting our fears aside.

Many twenty-first century ears automatically and unthinkingly misinterpret such terms as "chosen," "saved," and "damned." They misinterpret them by filtering them though the cracked prism of contemporary Western culture. That prism is blemished by suffocating self-focus and superficial identity politics. It fails to place words in the proper contexts of when they were written and spoken, and to whom they were immediately addressed. Filtering everything through this cracked prism is, shall we say, not always a positive.

Every Christmas is a season of hope and promise for all. This Christmas marks the end of a year that has been one of the most tumultuous in generations. My prayer is that this Christmas will also mark a beginning, that it will be the start of a period where we look beyond ourselves and our own selfish desires, where we accept and embrace the old eternal truths that were written on our hearts the moment we were conceived.

And I am optimistic that that will happen.

Merry Christmas.

Note: All of the biblical quotes in this post are from my NIV. They strike me as pieces of a puzzle, and I am indebted to Mathew P. John's recent book The Unknown God: A Journey with Jesus from East to West for beginning to put the puzzle together. John's book is also where I gleaned the things I said briefly about Hinduism and Buddhism... Coincidentally, around the same time I started reading that book I also happened upon some lectures by Michael Heiser. My brain has now fused some of the things Heiser talked about to some of the things John wrote about -- which means I intend to pen some follow-ups to this post that will probably spring in directions that are different, but not inconsistent. In the meantime, take care.

The Real Saint Nick

History provides many examples of actual people who have, over time, become so melded into the popular imagination that we tend to forget they were real. Saint Nicholas is one of them.

Born sometime around 280 A.D. in the town of Patara, in what was then part of Greece but is now part of Turkey, Nicholas was the son of wealthy parents who died when he was young. Having been raised as a devoted Christian, he spent his life using his inheritance to help those in need, and in addition to his charity he became known for harboring great concern for children and sailors.

Down through history, one particular story about his generosity has persisted. In those days, women whose families could not pay a dowry were more likely to die as spinsters than to get married. It is said that when Nicholas learned of a poor man who was worried about his daughters’ fate because he lacked money for their dowries, Nicholas surreptitiously tossed gold into the man’s home through an open window, and the gold landed in stockings that were drying by the fire. Much later, this 1,700-year-old story inspired the modern tradition of hanging stockings by the chimney to receive gifts from Santa on Christmas Eve.

Nicholas became Bishop of Myra and was imprisoned during the anti-Christian persecutions carried out by the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Based on the stories of his life, Catholic tradition considers him a patron saint of children, orphans, sailors, travelers, the wrongly imprisoned, and many other categories of people. Churches were constructed in his honor as early as the sixth century A.D. Today, his remains are buried in Bari, Italy.

For generations now, kids and adults alike have used the names Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, and Saint Nick interchangeably, without giving it a second thought. But there was an actual Saint Nicholas, a decent man who is obscured by commercial renderings of Christmas. We should not allow that fact to be forgotten, regardless of whether or not we are Catholic (and for the record, I am not).

Never Forget

Pearl Harbor Day is upon us, so let us recall what happened 79 years ago today. The day after the bombing, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed Congress on December 8, 1941, to request a formal declaration of war. His speech was simulcast to the country at large via the radio. In it, he said:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our secretary of state a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack…

Yesterday the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Wake Island.

And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island…

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves…

Always will be remembered the character of this onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory…

With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounding determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.

Pearl Harbor was attacked because it was where the U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet was headquartered. The bombing, which killed more than 2,400 people, began shortly before 8:00 on a Sunday morning.

Five of our eight battleships were sunk, the other three were badly damaged, and multiple other naval vessels were destroyed.

The majority of the American war planes based in Hawaii were destroyed as they sat on the ground.

In addition, most of the American air forces based in the Philippines were destroyed during the nighttime attack on that nation, which FDR also mentioned in his speech.

By crippling our Pacific defenses, the December 7th attack left us extremely vulnerable in the face of an aggressive enemy to our West – an enemy that had signaled its intent to rule the entire Pacific basin by subjugating other nations to its will.

This came at a time when we had not responded to the fact that Nazi Germany to our East had already declared war against us, had already brought most of Europe under its thumb, and had signaled its own intention to rule the world by way of an Aryan resurrection of the old Roman Empire.

Such circumstances would have spelled doom for the vast majority of countries throughout the course of history. With their foundations based on the accidents of ethnicity and geography, most countries would have simply surrendered; or, in a distinction without a difference, entered into “peace” negotiations under which they would have to accept the aggressor’s terms and after which the lives of their citizens would most certainly change for the worst.

But the United States is a nation based on ideals. Our foundation springs from the knowledge that there are things greater than us, things which are greater than the transient circumstances which exist on any given day. We have always found strength in the conviction that our nation exists to support and advance those greater things, to the benefit of people all over the world, and this sets the United States apart from all other nations in all other times.

Taking heed from FDR’s appeal to “righteous might,” reflecting what Abraham Lincoln earlier referred to as the “faith that right makes might,” the American people of 1941 summoned the invincible courage to rebuild and fight at the same time they were under fearsome siege. They did this despite the fact they were still suffering through an unprecedented economic depression that had started more than a decade before.

Let us pray that those qualities – that will to power and that unwavering belief in the sanctity of human freedom – have not been lost as new generations of Americans take the baton from the great ones which came before. For as has been said, those who forget the past will be forced to repeat it.

It would be shameful if history were to record that we squandered what was handed down to us by people like Larry Perry, and as a result we failed to transfer freedom’s blessings to our descendants... And since you probably don't know who Larry Perry is, I recommend you look here and find out.