Messin' with Tradition

This is the seventh in a series of personal reflections on Christmas posted during the 12 days of Christmas.

Pop Quiz:
1. According to Scripture, what animal did Mary ride as she and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem?
2. In the Gospel of Luke, what does the Innkeeper say to Mary and Joseph?
3. How many wise men from the east came searching for the one born 'King of the Jews'?

Answers: 
1. If you said "donkey" you wold be incorrect. Scripture doesn't indicate how Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem. It just says they went. It is possible that Mary rode a donkey but it is just as likely that she walked.

2. There is no Innkeeper mentioned in either of the Gospel accounts of Jesus' birth. Luke simply says, "there was no room at the inn." The Innkeeper was probably first introduced to the story in a children's reenactment of the Christmas story to provide another speaking part to a story with few characters.

3. Again, the Bible doesn't indicate how many wise men came. Originally it was thought that there were 12 since that number has significance (12 tribes of Israel, 12 disciples). Over time it has been whittled down to 3 wise men, one for each gift mentioned in the birth accounts of Jesus. Oh, and they didn't show up until Jesus was approximately 2 years old, assuming that the star that guided them first appeared at his birth and not before.

What do I make of this? Well, first of all, we are a lot more liberal with the "facts" that we take from scripture than we like to think. Much of what we "know" about the Bible as adults comes from the stories that we learned as children. And since we have no problem embellishing the stories for children we often end up with fictionalized accounts of what is recorded in scripture.

The Christmas story that we celebrate today is a mash-up of the two birth narratives recorded in the gospels of Luke and Matthew with the Epiphany story of the wise men thrown in. (Mark & John don't record a birth story.) It is what we do with most scripture. We mash-up the two creation stories in Genesis 1 & 2. We mash-up the two Ark stories in Genesis 7. In short, we create narratives to make sense of what we are given. In fact, creating narratives that provide meaning to life really is what humans are best at.

And that's okay. Does it really matter how Mary traveled to Bethlehem or how many wise men came in search of the child? Not really. Contrary to popular religious belief, salvation is not found in the details of the story. Salvation is received with the meaning of the story.