For many of us, the story of Christmas can become over familiar that we think we know how it will end. We then either become over sentimental about it or we become indifferent to it because we have heard it many times over. Allow me then to explain why, as suggested by the title above, Christmas is subversive.
C.S. Lewis was the one who described the first Christmas as subversive. To subvert is to overthrow something established or existing. The first Christmas was subversive. It overthrew what already existed in the world. The world has been turned upside down by sin that is not only in our time but even in the time before Jesus came. We hold as important those things that are not. We hold as unimportant those things that are. It’s a world gone wrong. It’s a world turned upside down. When Jesus came, he is turning right side up the upside down world we are in.
Think about this. Parents do not usually tell their children that their purpose in life is to be rejected and crucified. But that is the truth of Jesus and his birth. That’s how subversive the Christmas story is. And that’s only the beginning!
The first subversion we find in the gospel of St. Luke on Christmas day. Augustus Caesar, the ruler of Rome and the known world, calls for a census. Yet St. Luke says the story is not about the powerful ruler. It’s about some peasants, a poor couple, Mary and Joseph. It seems to be telling us that when we are looking for the power of God, don’t look at where the world tells you to look. To see what is truly important, don’t listen to the world.
The second subversion of the Christmas story we find in the gospel report that says “there was no room for them in the inn.” There was no place for Mary and Joseph, no room available. When we keep looking at exclusion, in being unwanted, in the humiliation of rejection, there is where the power of God is found. If you are a mother or a father, look back at the first time you held your new born child in your hands. Can you imagine anything more fragile, weaker, vulnerable and helpless? But the little child in Mary’s hand, that is God! That is the power of God, his self-emptying love by becoming man, taking upon himself our humanity. The power that created the universe cannot be identified with the big shots and despots of the world. It is the power of a love that is willing to be small for the sake of the beloved.
The third subversion of the Christmas story comes to us in the little detail describing that the child “was wrapped in swaddling clothes.” That is an astonishing and overwhelming truth that as he is wrapped in swaddling clothes, the Divine has wrapped himself in our frail humanity. God has wrapped himself in the things we are afraid of: failure, sickness, broken relationships, fear of death, human weaknesses. He does so for one reason: to be with us completely in love. Our culture worships the idea of total freedom. It says real power is the freedom to do what we want and when we want it. Then we see God’s idea of freedom: the willingness to be tied to another in love. Real power is when you can commit yourself in love to another.
Finally, we come to the last subversion of the Christmas story. At the first Christmas we are told that “Mary lays him in the manger.” Powerful people, like kings, always have other people serve them. Servants bring food and everything else these powerful people need. The one born in the manger, who is the King of kings, instead, lays himself out as food for the world. Being laid in a manger means he is the source of food for the world, the bread come down from heaven. His first audience as he lays in the manger is the shepherds. We have romanticized the image of the shepherds. In truth, they are cave dwellers, outsiders, scums and untrustworthy. But Jesus came for them as well. In short, he came for saints and more so for sinners. Fast forward to his death on the cross, he was crucified between two thieves. Yet he stays with them in love. The angels tell the shepherds “Be not afraid!” Like them, we are afraid of so many things. We’re afraid of our future and our past, our failures and frailties, our sickness and death.
The good news of Christmas shouts to us the message that a warrior is born to be with us, to do battle with all we are afraid of. We are not created to be alone. We are created to be with God. Now isn’t that a subversive Christmas story different from what we usually imagine it to be? Isn’t that totally a different picture from the ones we usually find in the touching Belen scene? So, have yourself a subversive little Christmas!
