The Christmas season is upon us. When I was a child I started seeing calls for “Let’s put Christ back in Xmas.” Since some people shorten the name of Christmas to Xmas, thought this was a call to quit spelling the name without the use of Christ in front of “mas,” i.e. CHRISTmas. Some folks might have meant this, but the deeper meaning was to quit focussing on presents, lights, and parties and think more about Christ during the Christmas season. It is like the saying, “Jesus is the reason for the season.”
Growing up, there were many more misconceptions I had about Christmas. I used to see cards and pictures of the birth of Jesus with the star overhead shining down on the baby in the manger. I heard the story of the wisemen who came searching for him. When the wisemen got to Jerusalem they inquired from King Herod about the location of baby Jesus. It always puzzled me. Why didn’t they just follow the light shining down from the star? Of course I now know there was no beam of light shining down on the manger. The magi (wisemen) were astronomers who could read the skies like a sailor at sea and therefore with the aid of prophesy deduced where the Christ child was born. Such a feat would take education and training and a knowledge of both the skies and prophesy. King Herod was not able to follow the star leading to Jesus.
Years later I found out there many more fallacies about the birth of Jesus. Here are listed just three of them.
1. Jesus was born on December 25.
It is not impossible for Jesus to have been born in the middle of the winter, but it is extremely unlikely. The Bible does not specify a day or month. The Bible does say that shepherds were “abiding in the field” at the time of Jesus’ birth. Winter is a cold time of the year and thus the fields were unproductive for grazing. The normal practice was to keep the sheep in the field at night only from Spring to Autumn. This makes it likely that Jesus was born during a warmer time of the year. December does not fit for the birth of Jesus.
2. There were three wise men. “We Three Kings of Orient”
Maybe there were three or maybe there were ten. No one knows. The number three probably comes from the three gifts – gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Somehow we have just assumed there were three “kings” because there were three gifts. They were not kings at all, but rather wise men or “magi.” They were men who spent their days studying prophesies and their nights studying the stars. They did not necessarily bring three gifts, but rather gifts of three kinds. They may have brought any number of gifts.
3. Mary rode to Bethlehem on a donkey.
Maybe she did and may she did not. The Bible does not say. Read for yourself the accounts given in Matthew 1:18-25; 2:1-12 and Luke 1:26-80; 2:1-20. The Bible only says she came with Joseph. In connection with this I had the image of Mary and Joseph getting into Bethlehem just as Mary went into labor with Jesus. I always pictured Joseph running from place to place hunting for somewhere Mary could give birth. the Bible does not say they got into Bethlehem just in the nick of time. Now I feel confident that Joseph as a wise and thoughtful husband made sure that Mary made the trip weeks before her due date.
I really don’t care if people think there were three wisemen or that Mary rode on a donkey. I don’t even car if people think of December 25 as the day Jesus was born. I just found these interesting and though you might benefit from knowing these things.
Lonnie Davis