This year all the trips to family were over before Christmas began. Saturday was a day at the in-laws and Sunday was a trip to my parents. The person I was when I lived with these people is dead and for me Christmas is a fresh reconnection with loved ones laced with a heavy dose of reminders that I’ve changed so much.

Today is Christmas and for a change I’m at my own home on Christmas with my wife, a good cup of coffee, and the comfort of being what I have come to call “me”.

Now that I’m home I can focus a bit on what Christmas really means. The most important things that I take from the beautiful metaphorical stories of Jesus birth are the following 3 points that the 1st and 2nd century Christians weave into the stories as they are told and retold over the centuries of their creation.

1. Jesus was a peasant and the humble nature of his birth in these stories is a critical clue to what early Christians saw as his primary role as a protestor of the empire and a spokesman of the people. Jesus’ life and message was one of stark contrast to the Roman ideals of empire and his birth in a humble stable was an important contrasting image to the lavish lifestyle of imperial luxury.

2. Jesus was seen as the savior of Jews and they saw in him the hope to restore justice just as the OT prophets had hoped. He was their messiah and the story of Christmas is carefully filled with references to the Jewish prophetic writings including his linage to king David and a “change of venue” of his place of birth. For these storytellers and for many of us today, Jesus is the messiah and should rightly be linked to the OT writings of hope for restoration.

3. A miraculous birth was key to the story and was intentionally borrowed from Roman Imperial theology where emperors were always sons of gods like Julius Caesar son of Venus or Augustus Caesar son of Apollo. Viewed as either accurate history or as narrative metaphor, the main truth is the same. The story claims loud and clear that Jesus’ path of nonviolence, justice, and peace is our final hope and Caesar's path of war, luxury, and injustice is NOT.

Christmas is about more than the birth of a child. It is a birth of the hope for justice and peace on earth. Christmas is the celebration of the moment that divine wisdom and reason (“logos” or “the word” as described by the gospel of John) became flesh and dwelt among us. Christmas is not about closing our minds by holding onto strict doctrines, it is about opening our minds to divine reason.