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The holidays are good for Hollywood; the quest for nostalgia and sentiment in December drives Americans to the movies. The Nativity Story is one of this year’s major holiday releases. Using what C.S. Lewis once called a “baptized imagination,” the movie validates the humanity of the Nativity story: The intimacy and complexity of Mary and Joseph’s relationship; the visits by the angels—to Mary and to Joseph; the harsh, 80-mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem; the expectant magi; the awestruck shepherds; and the monstrously evil Herod. In addition, as with Scripture, the movie does not hide the outrage of the Nativity. Herod’s slaughter of all boys under two reveals that while the heavens sang God’s praises, there were parents in Bethlehem who grieved and mourned their sons! The scandal, gossip and humiliation of Mary’s pregnancy, with its hint of infidelity and then a threatened divorce! How could Mary explain all this to her friends and family?
The facts of the Nativity expose the paradox of Christmas. First, there is the paradox of purity in the details of a pregnancy that would normally bring grief and distress. Mary asks the angel Gabriel how she could be pregnant and discovers it is a miracle of God the Spirit. There is the purity of Joseph, who protects and defends Mary by marrying her. Second, there is the paradox of joy in what would normally be a cruel, nasty tragedy. Instead of vicious, personal attacks, there is the joy and exhilaration of Mary’s cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth praises God and Mary responds with her great hymn, the Magnificat. This poor, peasant teen knows her God. Finally, there is the paradox of Jesus, God’s Son, born in the most humble of settings. The truth of biblical Christianity is that the babe in the manger on Christmas morning—was God! And this is the ultimate paradox of Christmas—Immanuel, God with us.
The first Christmas was a low-key affair. That morning all eyes were on Rome. It was powerful, vast and vicious. Yet, one of God’s core values is the exaltation of the humble. Immanuel humbled Himself 2,000 years ago, so that He might be the Redeemer of humanity—the strategic essence of Christianity’s historic gospel. What happened that morning inaugurated a new kingdom that has long survived the collapse of mighty Rome. This, then, is one of the major lessons of the Christmas paradox: What seems significant in our eyes, often is not. God was up to something that first Christmas, but it was not initially evident on that bed of straw. Fast forward to 2006 and we still see the worldwide influence of that baby. Rome is gone; Herod is gone; Caesar Augustus is gone—but Jesus is not! Biblical Christianity still adores, worships and obeys that baby, but now as its enthroned Lord. For Christians, Jesus is their Lord, their King, and their personal Immanuel!
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