Some people say the Christmas story has become irrelevant. Could rediscovering it's revolutionary nature change that? / A.J. Hendry

Christmas is fast approaching.

Which no doubt means you find yourself surrounded by nativity sets featuring baby Jesus in the manger, or Christmas Carols on repeat declaring the Saviour’s arrival, and the celebrating the Virgin birth.

Yet, if you don’t identify with the Christian tradition, it may be hard to see what relevance the Christmas story has for us today.

That’s partly because the story has been co-opted by the power and privilege of the West, and sanitised in order to be sold as nothing more than a nice story about a baby in a manger.

And so, even for some Christians, the Christmas story can feel kind of irrelevant to our day to day lives. More commercial than holy.

And yet, it has more to offer than most of us, Christians included give it credit for.

The beginning of the Christmas story highlights the irony that exists in the way this story has traditionally been told. For it was never meant to be told from the perspective of the powerful or the privileged. It was written first, and originally told by, those who sit in the margins. Those who have been beaten down, outcast, and rejected.

This is a story about revolution.

A story which is both subversive and dangerous, a story that was designed to challenge the political and religious powers of its day.

The first Christmas story was set in Roman occupied Palestine. The Jewish people who lived there had come under Roman rule. Caesar was their ruler, and he was known as the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. He ruled with an iron fist, using violence and fear in order to enforce his will.

And so, as a result of Roman rule, the tangata whenua of Palestine found themselves second class citizens in their own land. Rome took their wealth, their freedom, and if anyone stepped out of line, their very lives.

Yet, the Jews resisted the colonization of the Empire. They fought back, rebelling against Roman rule. And as is so often the way, the colonizers responded with the full might of the Empire. Crushing any and all who resisted and flooding the whenua with the blood of their crucified martyrs.

This is the political climate, the backdrop of the first Christmas story. Not a silent and peaceful night, but a failed revolution, and a subjugated people.

And so, in desperation, the people cried out to their God for salvation. There’s was a desperate cry, a cry not simply for an internal or spiritual salvation as has too often been repeated, but a cry for real, political, physical salvation from the powers that were oppressing them.

Yet, God was silent.

Or so it seemed.

Until one night a messenger from God, an angel, came to a young brown girl, living in a small town in the far reaches of the Empire. Her name was Mary. She was no more than a child herself, unmarried, and in the context of the Empire, insignificant.

Yet, the angel said that she had been chosen by the Divine to bear the saviour of her people.

That she – a young Jewish girl – had been offered the opportunity to carry within her the Hope for the world’s salvation.

She could have refused the offer. She should have.

To be the bearer of her people’s liberation came with a cost. Having a child outside of marriage would mean that she would no doubt be shamed and ostracised both by her religious community, and her own whanau.

And if that wasn’t enough of a price to pay, having a child outside of marriage was also against her people’s law, the punishment being death. Her acceptance of this divine assignment could mean her life. The price was indeed high.

Yet, instead of bowing down to fear, or cowing to a culture that told her that she was too young, too brown, too woman, to oppose the Empire, she consented to becoming a part of God’s grand rescue operation.

Instead of cowering in fear at the magnitude of the road ahead of her, she sang out in triumphant rebellion. A song which has echoed down the ages, a song known best as Mary’s Magnificat, a song of liberation.

“God has scattered the rich and the powerful, he has pulled down the princes from their thrones, he has raised the humble and fed the hungry, sending the rich away empty.”

Her song is a song of resistance.

This is the beginning of the Christmas story. It begins with Hope for all those who have been oppressed, and a warning for those who presume to sit in the seat of the Powerful and Privileged. The rule of Caesar is drawing to an end.

And so, with her fierce yes, the Christmas story begins.

It was no easy road for Mary. Like so many women before and since, she had to face the fear and doubt that comes with not knowing how her partner would respond to learning about her pregnancy. She had to face the scorn and rejection of those she loved. To bear the gossip and slander that accompanied the surprise news of her growing child.

And then, in the height of her pregnancy, she was forced to travel by donkey to a small town by the name of Bethlehem. Not because her partner had a new career opportunity, or because they wanted a change of scene, but because the occupying force, Rome, commanded them to in order to participate in a national census.

And so, they were forced to leave their home. The trip would have been long and dangerous. And when they did finally arrive, they found themselves in the impossible position of having no where to live. In a foreign town, homeless and pregnant, they were forced to take shelter in a cave used for the purpose of housing animals.

And it was there, surrounded by the filth and stench of cows and sheep that Mary gave birth the saviour of the world. A little brown, baby boy. God, in human flesh. Born, not in some palace, amongst the rich, and the powerful. But, in a cave used to house animals. Surrounded not by Kings and Princes, but by shepherds, cows, and the smell of manure.

The importance of these details cannot be overlooked. Jesus was not some white, blue eyed baby, born into a middle class family.

No, he was born a Jew, in occupied Palestine. Born into poverty, a religious and cultural outcast, amongst a heavily oppressed and subjugated group of people. Yet, an army of Angel’s heralded his birth. And kings travelled from the East to pay him homage.

This child, it was said, would be the true King of Kings, the true Lord of Lords.

And it is here that the political nature of this story is further highlighted. You might note that these titles given to Jesus, are the same titles used by the Roman’s to describe their ruler Caesar.

These are extremally political terms, and by applying them to baby Jesus, the writer of this story is sending a message. A message of Hope to all have been oppressed, rejected and beaten down.

A message that the true King of this world has come, not on a throne amongst the wealthy and the powerful, but lying in a manger, one with the poor and the oppressed. A message that soon, very soon, the false lord Caesar will be defeated.

For this little brown boy, from the far reaches of the Empire, would grow up to lead a movement that would eventually signal the downfall of the roman Empire. And all other Empire’s like it. A movement that challenged the right of any human being to reign over and dehumanize another. A movement that questioned the legitimacy of the powerful to subjugate the weak. A movement built on Love and founded on the principle that all human’s bear the image of the Divine, and all life is sacred and should be cherished.

This movement not only challenged and toppled the might of Rome, it continued throughout the ages. It inspired Ghandi in his fight to resist the British Empire through the use of non-violent resistance. It lead Martin Luther King Jr. to stand against the American Government’s oppression of African American people, and it’s wairua was present with our very own revolutionaries, Tohu and Te Whiti, as they refused to succumb to hatred, while boldly resisting the violent actions of the Crown against their people.

The Christmas story is powerful and important because at its heart, it is a story of Love. One that speaks of the Divine’s great love for Humanity, that She loved the world so much, that She was willing to become One of us in order to join us in our struggle.

The Christmas story is a warning to all who stand in the role of Caesar. Who sit in the comfort of the Empire, who use their power and privilege to abuse, and do harm to others.

It is a reminder that Empire’s fall. And that those who humiliate and neglect the weak, will be held to account. For the Divine is on the side of the oppressed, She is on the side of the weak, and the marginalized.

She stands for those who cannot stand for themselves.

We have seen a lot of darkness this year. We have been forced to stand face to face with the evil and bigotry that exists within our land. We have watched as both our world, and our home, has grown more divided. Where more and more, people are choosing to reject love, in favour of their own comfort and security.

The gaps between left and right, progressive and conservative, religious and non-religious, have seemed to grow immensely larger. And mocking and ridiculing those we disagree with has become easier than choosing to listen and learning to love.

Standing on the edge of this year’s end, looking forward into the year to come, with so much hatred, so much division, so much apathy, it is hard to imagine much changing for the better.

Yet, it is into this darkness that the Christmas story speaks. Through this story we learn about the power of Love to conquer Hate. We are reminded that it is through the small, and the seemingly weak, that the Divine brings about redemption. That even though the Empire may seem to have won, that victory is on its way.

You don’t have to be a Christian to celebrate and appreciate this story.

For it is a story that belongs to all people. A story of resistance. A story for all oppressed peoples who refuse to allow the Empire to control the narrative of their own existence. A story for all who have been pushed down, outcast and rejected.

This is a story of Love.

Meri Kirihimete.

A.J. Hendry