December 2019
The date of Jesus’ birth is not really known.
The accounts in Matthew and Luke suggest he was born shortly before the death of Herod the Great, and this would put it somewhere in the year 4 BC. Beyond that, however, there is no way of determining whether this took place in December or in some other month.
In the Greek-speaking east, Jesus’ birth was celebrated on January 6, not because anyone really thought he was born on that date, but because it was apropos to celebrate his birth during the season of Epiphany (a day commemorating God’s revelation of himself to the Gentiles). In the Latin-speaking west, Jesus’ birth was celebrated on December 25, and here too for liturgical reasons. It was the day of the winter solstice in the Roman calendar, and being the shortest day of the year was also the day in which light began to gradually increase over the surface of the earth. This too was apropos for celebrating the birth of the one who the gospel of John famously described as “the true light that gives light to every man.”
Long before Christianity ever existed, the Romans celebrated the birth of the sun on this same day by exchanging presents and lighting candles, and it can hardly be an accident that these same customs persist today in the celebration of Christmas. Accordingly to Jacob bar-Salibi, a 12th century bishop from Syria, “It was a custom of the pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day.”
Christians have sometimes argued that believers ought not celebrate Christmas, since it likely doesn’t coincide with the actual day of Jesus’ birth, and since the festivities connected with it are of pagan origin. And yet these are precisely the features which exhibit the redemptive power of the gospel, which not only transforms our individual lives, but our social institutions as well. True, the people of Israel were instructed to separate themselves from the customs of the pagans, but who can fail to see a higher expression of God’s will in the conduct of the one who chose rather to attend the wedding feast and change the water into wine! For Christmas is not only a celebration of the birth of Christ, but a celebration of the fact that with his birth the power that created the universe has broken into our narrow world and is now operative in the lives of his people and his Church. The legacy of Christianity is found not only in the lives of sinners that have been made into saints, but in the repurposing of every speck of dust on this earth for the glory of Christ, whether that mean turning temples into churches or human revelries into God-honoring ceremonies.
The pagan background to Christmas, far from diminishing its importance, serves only to increase its depth and beauty.
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