While there are many stories about Jesus’ life that have been passed down to us - both canonical and extracanonical - the Christmas story has a special place in our collective hearts. Part of it, I’m sure, has to do with the fact that we associate it closely with “the most wonderful time of the year”. But I think another part of the reason that we love this story so much is because it makes it clear that our Messiah is special. Long before he heals the sick or walks on water, Jesus' conception through the Holy Spirit, the shepherds, the star, all clearly tell us that we’ve hitched our wagon to the right savior. The Christmas story tells us that OUR messiah is someone that the world has never seen before and will never see again.
Or does it?
This might be difficult to hear, but it turns out that this beloved story isn’t the only - or even the first - of its kind. Many other ancient cultures have surprisingly similar birth accounts for their religion’s heroes, long before Jesus came on the scene. The Persian god Mithra was known widely in the 14th century BCE as “the light of the world,” and some legends say that his birth on the winter solstice was witnessed by shepherds. The ancient Meopotamian god Gilgamesh was described in the 2nd millennium BCE as being born of both a god and a human, as were many famous figures in ancient Greek mythology: Achilles, Dionysus, Heracles, Orpheus, and so on. So many of these figures were conceived under miraculous circumstances (including more than a few virgin mothers) that it would be impossible to list all of them here. The appearance of the so-called “Julian Star” in 44 BCE was widely considered to be a sign of Caesar’s divinity, making his heir Augustus the “son of god” and affirming his divinely bestowed authority. Even the idea of divine incarnation isn’t new - the Bhagavad Gita describes how the Hindu god Vishnu came to earth as a mortal to help people as early as the 5th century BCE.
In other words, the Christmas story isn’t quite as unique as we may have originally thought.
Now, I know it’s probably hard for some of you to hear this - especially since we tend to look down on other ancient religions as naive superstitions. If OUR sacred stories have striking similarities to THEIR sacred stories, then what does that say about the things that WE believe? Some of us may even be feeling the foundations of our faith shaking a little bit. But we can’t deny the facts just because we don’t like them, and the fact is that many aspects of the Christmas story can be found centuries earlier in stories belonging to other ancient religions.
I hope you know that I’m not telling you this in an attempt to destroy your faith, nor am I doing it to ruin Christmas. I promise. In fact, I’m hoping to do the opposite. Because here’s the thing that I need you to understand: it’s not the literal veracity of the Christmas story or its distinctiveness that gives it its power. It’s the truths that lie beneath the details - some of which are far older than the gospels themselves - that matter.
Like the truth communicated by Jesus being the “light of the world” who was born on the longest night of the year - that God always sends us hope in the bleakest of times. Like the truth conveyed through the presence of shepherds - that salvation is not reserved for the wealthy and powerful, but is also for the poor and seemingly insignificant. Like the truth declared by the presence of a new star in the sky - that all of creation is a testament to God’s glory. Like the truth announced when a mortal gives birth to the physical incarnation of a god - that God is not some distant figure removed from humanity, but dwells in and among us. Like the truth that God offers hope to humanity even beyond the story of Christmas - uniquely and importantly through Christ, but also through every story about divinity that humans have ever told each other throughout our history.
These truths are far more important, far more valuable, far more real than the mere “facts” of the Christmas story. Facts can be called into question, challenged, disproven. A faith built solely on presumed facts is built on shaky ground, indeed. But while facts are subject to new information; truths do not change. When your faith is built on the deeper truths contained within the story, it’s built on something far more enduring. A faith based on truth cannot be shaken; it can only become deeper and stronger.
Now, if you still want to believe in the factuality of the Christmas story as it’s been handed down to us, then by all means, please do. God’s ways are beyond our understanding, after all, and I certainly don’t know any better than anyone else exactly what happened in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago. To be honest, I wouldn’t even go so far as to say that *I* entirely disbelieve the story myself. It’s just that it wouldn’t bother me so much if it turned out to have happened differently, because the details aren’t the part that’s most important to my faith.
So if even after all this, you still cherish the “facts” of the Christmas story (which, again, is perfectly fine), I urge you to explore what new value you can find in the story’s deeper truths, beyond the familiar details. Maybe they can deepen your appreciation for this ancient story. Maybe they can add new meaning to your celebrations in December. Maybe they can even teach you something you hadn’t realized before.
No matter what actually happened on the night that Jesus was born, this story endures not because of its details, but because it teaches us the things about Jesus that are really crucial to know. It tells us to pay attention to what this baby will grow up to do, because he is special. It tells us that his relationship with God is unique, mysterious, and holy. It tells us that he is worthy of worship. But perhaps more than anything, this story that we retell year after year teaches us the most important truth of all: that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. And what “fact” could ever compete with that? Amen.
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