The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY
Today is the first Sunday of Christmastide, and I need to remind you that Christmas isn't over yet! In England, in the middle ages, Christmas lasted until 12th night, January 6, which is the Feast of the Epiphany. But even earlier than that, Christmastide was celebrated in the Church Year from Midnight Mass of Christmas Eve until February 2, the Feast of the Purification. During that time, meat could be eaten on Fridays, even though most Fridays were usually fast days; and decorations remained up, and people had shorter work hours. I think that must have been very convenient in winter, when the snow and ice would make it hard to get around, and dark came early in the afternoon. But, whatever the reasons, we are still in Christmastide.
It seems to me that most people do not see much connection between Christmas, the birth of Jesus, and Easter, when we celebrate his rising from the dead. We often hear people in church say that we Christians are Easter people, and that's true. But we are also Christmas people! We all need to spend some time thinking how these two major holy days are connected to each other, and what it means for us as Christian people here and now.
Of course, one level of connection is a very simple fact: Jesus could not die on the cross and rise again, if he had not been born into a human body in the first place. We have to have Christmas in order to have Easter. That is very clear.
But...let's dig a little deeper. I suspect that one reason Christmas is more popular than Easter with many people is simply that the picture of a sweet baby in his mother's arms, or in a manger, is so much more appealing than the picture of a crucified man rising from the dead. Easter always has to remind us of Holy Week and all the suffering connected with it, and we would much rather think about the happiness of a new baby, and the joy of the people who came to worship him. But, most of those pictures in our minds come from Christmas cards. They make it look very sweet and pretty, so that we often do not think of the sacrifice and suffering that were part of Christmas. In fact, most people don't even know that there was any sacrifice and suffering involved in that first Christmas, just as there is sacrifice and suffering involved in Holy Week and Easter. We can learn much from thinking about the sacrifices and the suffering that were part of that first Christmas, just as we learn from meditating on the events of Holy Week and Easter each year.
First: Think about Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were elderly people and had no children. At that time, it was a shameful thing for a married couple not to have children. It was thought that God was punishing them for some dreadful sin. A woman who had no children was looked down on by other women, and could even be divorced by her husband. That idea was the normal way of thinking for many hundreds of years, in fact, right up to about a hundred years ago. Science did not have any answers about why a couple could not have children, and something must be wrong with a childless marriage. So: Think about the hurt that Zechariah and Elizabeth felt, the long hard prayers for "please, God, send us a child," and the sneers and whispering of their friends trying to figure out what they had done that was so terrible that the Lord denied them children. And then, when Elizabeth finally became pregnant, there would be more gossip about how such an elderly lady would suddenly be able to have a child. When John, who later was known as John the Baptist, was born, more gossip started when Zechairah announced his name. John wasn't a family name. Why call him John? People must have wondered; in fact, the Bible says they did.
Then: Mary and Joseph. I suspect that Mary was terrified when the angel came to her. You remember that the angel had to say, first, "Don't be afraid, Mary, I have a message for you...you have found favor with God." The fact that the angel said that tells us that she was scared out of her wits, doesn't it? And then the message: Mary would become the mother of God's son, and must name him Jesus. It must have cost Mary a great deal, emotionally, to say, "Let it happen according to your word." Mary and Joseph were engaged, which means that their fathers had already signed a marriage contract, but that they had not yet been married, or began to live together. However, since the marriage contract was signed, they were considered to be married. And since they were not yet living together, Mary's pregnancy would be considered to be from an affair with some other man. It would be called adultery, and a woman who committed adultery could be stoned to death. Even if she was not stoned, her husband could divorce her if she was going to have a baby that was not his. Mary must have known that her life would be in the balance when she answered the angel. Even if she was not put to death, Joseph could cancel the marriage when he found that she was pregnant. And she probably expected that her parents would be angry, and perhaps even put her out of the house, for bringing this disgrace on them. Yes, Mary suffered a great deal, not just because of the birth far away from home, and the long walk to Bethlehem, but also wondering what would happen to her. The village gossips would be busy talking about her, too, as soon as it became obvious that she would have a child. She would lose friends, and people would snub her or make nasty remarks.
Joseph's suffering would be mostly to his pride. His legally contracted wife was pregnant, and not by him. He must have worried long and wondered hard about what to do: call off the wedding and the marriage? Go to law and have Mary stoned? Sue Mary's parents? The Bible tells us that Joseph was a just man, and it would have been terribly hard for him to decide what to do. Other men would make nasty remarks about Mary's pregnancy. His pride would take a beating. And even after the angel came to him in the dream and told him that the child was from God, not from another man, he must have been very worried. How do I bring up God's son? How do I discipline a child that comes from the Lord? If anything happens to that baby, will God hold me responsible? I don't earn enough to give God's son everything nice like he should have...I am just a village carpenter. Why didn't God send his child to a king or a noble who could take proper care of him?
The parents of Mary and Joseph had their own suffering to deal with, also. It hurts parents to see their children, even grown children, snubbed and made fun of and talked about in a nasty way in the streets. Nazareth was a small town, and small towns are hotbeds of gossip. I wonder how Mary's mother, Anne, felt when she walked to the well and saw the people looking at her and turning away to talk about her and her daughter? I wonder how Mary's father dealed with all the little mean hints that he didn't know how to take care of his daughter and keep her safe at home until she was ready to go live with her husband? Did Joseph's father get into an argument with Mary's father about whether the marriage contract should be allowed to stand or if it should be called off?
And then came the long walk to Bethlehem, around 90 miles, in the last month of pregnancy. No hotels, no restaurants: carry your own blanket roll, your own food and water. The Christmas cards show Mary riding on a donkey, but in fact, most people would be walking, even Mary. If they really had enough money for a donkey, they would most likely use it to carry their blankets, food and water, not to ride on. In the near East, chivalry isn't like it is in the west. You mostly see the men riding and the women walking, there. And then, in Bethlehem, with no mother or aunt or sister to help, in a cow barn, to give birth to a baby! Labor is never comfortable even for ordinary mothers and ordinary babies. Alone, away from home, scared, it would be very hard for Mary that Christmas Eve.
Just as they settled down, a group of rough, not-so-clean shepherds came tramping in, looking for them, talking of angels and singing in the sky. Mary would be exhausted and wanting nothing more than to rest and sleep, but now she must be a gracious hostess and listen to their talk, let them see her precious new baby, and hope they would leave soon and let her get some rest.
We celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas, and rightly so. But I do not think we have any right to overlook the fact that Christmas involves suffering, just as Holy Week and Easter involve suffering. Both have a great deal of joy and gladness at the wonderful events that we celebrate. But life is never bought cheaply; the birth of any child involves suffering, at least for the mother, and often for others. The birth of Jesus involved the suffering of many people. The birth into new life of Jesus at Easter cost him much suffering, and cost his disciples and his mother and other friends suffering, also. For both Christmas and Easter, the joy outweighs the suffering....but we cannot, ever, ignore the cost that people paid to purchase that joy for us. As the Psalmist says, Weeping stays through the night, but joy comes in the morning. Our joy at the birth of Christ should, I think, recognize the cost to so many people of that birth, and we should thank God, with grateful hearts, that people, then and now, joyfully accept suffering that will bring good to others and glory to God. Amen.
