[Blogger's Note: After finishing my last post, my son-in-law let me borrow a book he had recently purchased called, "The Immortality Key" by Brian C. Muraresku. It is a scholarly book that begins exploring the Eleusinian Mysterys but which leads to an exploration of the Pagan Continuity Hypotheses in relationship to "paleo-christianity" (before 313 AD) and the early practice of the eucharist in the home-churches and catacombs of the Greek speaking Mediterranean. It's a fascinating book I highly recommend for those interested in early church history, which we know so little about prior to the 4th century; as much of what we do know has been sifted and filtered through the imperial church of the late fourth century. I will likely make some references to this book as it offers some insight to the mythic understanding of Jesus. - Norm]
In my previous post, I examined the myths of Jesus' birth. As mentioned in that post there are two distinct myths; one offered in the Gospel of Matthew from Joseph's perspective as Jesus' nominal father and the one offered in the Gospel of Luke from Mary's perspective. That neither of these stories are based on fact, other than the fact that Jesus was born, leave us no choice but to consider them myths, which raises the question why there was a need to provide mythic tales surrounding Jesus' birth.
The simplest answer is that whereas all the Gospels in the New Testament were written for the Greek speaking world of the Mediterranean and Jesus was just a man from Galilee who presented a different take on the law and prophets of ancient Israel and Judah, his teachings wouldn't have gone very far. Jesus didn't actually teach anything that was new to Judaism. What was new was his interpretation and application of the scriptures he knew. What caught the attention of people living in the Roman Empire at the time was the stories about Jesus, which were used to declare him as the Son of God. In Judaism, the term "Son of God" could be applied to kings, prophets, and the awaited for messiah. Beyond Judah that term meant divinity; in that, the Son of God is God.
Matthew and Luke faced a mixed audience of both Jews and Greeks. As noted in my previous post, Matthew was focused on proving Jesus' divinity by referencing Old Testament prophesies. While the Gospel of Luke makes slight use of prophecy regarding Mary, it appeals to a broader, cosmopolitan Greek-speaking audience within the Roman Empire where gods were known to impregnate women who bore offspring considered to be Demi-gods.
Brian Muraseku draws an interesting connection between the Greek god Dionysus and Jesus regarding their birth stories. I will speak more of this when it comes to mythic Jesus in the Gospel of John, but for now (to whet one's interest) Jesus and Dionysus are both connected to Galilee, Jesus hailed from Nazareth and Dionysus hailed from Scythopolis or Nysa, hence the name Dionysus or the god from Nysa part of the Decaoplis area and close to Nazareth. [Muraresku, Brian, The Immortality Key, St. Martin Press Group, 120 Broadway, New York, New York, pg. 200]
The point here being that such connection in the first century would resonate to a much large audience. Within the ancient world, the idea that Jesus is God had precedents for such an understanding
But what about today?
How are we to understand the stories of Jesus' birth in the twenty-first century if the initial intent was to present Jesus not only as a Son of God, but also God incarnate?
* * *
I am an advocate for keeping Jesus fully human and the concept of God as something beyond our comprehension to fully know. I do not see a need to divinize Jesus any more than we are divinized when God breathed God's self into our first mythical parent, Adam to life. Here I am going to rely on my primary thesis regarding Jesus: What is true about Jesus is true about us; likewise, what is true about us is true about Jesus.
That premise rests on the one fact that is demonstrable - Jesus was a human just like us:
Jesus was born.
Jesus lived.
Jesus died.
In liturgical terms, we can identify this statement as the mystery of life that applies to all of us.
I'm not a huge fan of using the term mystical, but for the purpose of this series on the Mythic Jesus, it is a term I cannot avoid because myth moves us from the concretized factual towards the perennial truths that myths often present in a mystic sense. Given the facts, many of the stories about Jesus formulate mysteries based on myths which have been distilled into what is called the mystery of faith within liturgical settings:
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
It is the mythic that forms a demarcation between the factual and the mystical.
* * *
If Jesus is purely human and nothing more, what truth(s) does Jesus' mythic/mystical birth stories present?
I think there may be several. The myth of Jesus' birth offers the idea that every person born into this world is ultimately God's child and that this unfathomable creative and animating force is our true lineage. Such a lineage is not based on a bloodline but rather a breath-line. We share breath with every living thing that has been born on this earth since the dawn of life on this planet.
Mary's question, "How this can be?" is the ultimate ontological question. Gabriel's answer that the spirit of God would hover over her recalls Genesis 1 when the spirit of God hovered over the waters before God said, "Let there be light." This creates a mystical connection between Jesus and God's first son Adam. Jesus' birth represents a reset of the original creation story with a twist.
Instead of Eve coming from Adam's side (rib), this new Adam (Jesus) comes from a new Eve's (Mary's) womb. In essence, Jesus' birth is a mystic rebirth of who we are. The Christmas story, especially as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, is essentially our birth story. We enter the world naked and in need of care from the moment we take our first breath, the breath that every living thing shares with us on this earth. To this day we continue to recycle the the first breath that Jesus took, that Adam took, and that every creature took since the beginning of life on this planet. We are more connected by air than by blood, and we are more connected by being alive and experiencing life together more than anything else.
If God is a verb, the creative force that energizes all the power within the universe and animated life on this planet, then within this minimalist story of a baby boy born in a stable we are brought down to earth in order to be grounded in mystery that is life. The idea that God came down and became incarnate is to recognize our common source and our common essence, the very ground we walk on. We are all incarnations of the creative and energizing force we call God. In this sense, the birth story of Jesus in Luke resonates with the Gospel of John, more than it does with the Gospel of Matthew.
Mary is the main character in this birth story. Her visit from Gabriel starts her on a mystical journey with the child she bears. She doesn't question the mechanics of the situation, she accepts the position God has placed her in. What does it all mean? How can it be? Are question that open the gate into her mystical journey where her pondering nature is the mode of transportation. That which she has given life to becomes her life.
In Luke's version there are "shepherds abiding their fields by night, keeping watch over their sheep" to whom a host of angels appear to give them the good news of Jesus' birth. Shepherds keeping watch over their sheep during the night present strong metaphorical connotations. It is to those who watch over the vulnerable who get invited to see for themselves a new creation's humble beginning.
Being awake to the dangers that lurk and prey on the helpless and unaware is a prophetic calling. In the twenty-first century the shepherds of this era are the "WOKE," the people who are on the lookout for those who agitate and separate people into warring factions so that they are easy prey for the power-hungry. They are the peacemakers that Jesus talks about, who are specifically called the children of God. [Matthew 5:9]
* * *
The Gospel of Matthew offers another perspective of Jesus' birth; that of a parent or a caretaker. The "in-name-only" father of Jesus, Joseph, is the main character in Jesus' birth story in the Gospel of Matthew. In order to protect Mary and Jesus, Joseph must give up his personal pride, his ego. Joseph is dreamer (a mystic if you will). He processes his dilemma of being married to Mary when he finds out she is pregnant with someone else's child. His first impulse is to put Mary away privately. He cares about Mary because he loves her, but he is faced with a nagging question, "Does she really love me?" As far as the child goes, why should he care about it? It's not his. He's in an awkward position and something deeper is nagging him not to make a quick decision, so Joseph sleeps on it.
In his dreams an angel comes to him and fills Jospeh in on the details of Mary's pregnancy. He immediately understands and accepts that the child she bears is God's child. Joseph awakens with a fresh outlook on both his wife and this child of God who he is entrusted to his care for as his own. Joseph is not exactly an adoptive father. He like Mary and Jesus are being used as archetypes, the Holy Family. There is an otherness to their relationship with each; in that, they serve as exemplars of how we are to relate to each other and treat each other.
Joseph is the adult in the room; both by age and by role. He must overcome his inclination for self-preservation and become the preservationist of the other regardless of how the other appears to him. He not only is given insight into their importance to God, but he sees their importance to whole family of God, the whole of humanity.
The Gospel of Matthew also has visitors coming from a long distance to see Jesus. The priestly Magi from ancient Persia, like the shepherds in the Gospel of Luke are watchers. Unlike the shepherds, however, the Magi are seeking fulfillment of a Hebrew prophecy that said a king would be born in Bethlehem. [Micah 5:2,4]. They offer the toddler Jesus metaphorical gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which are traditionally understood as standing for his being a king, a priest, and a prophet. Some see myrrh as symbols of the oil used to prepare his body for burial.
The Magi were not Judaic priests, they were Zoroastrian priest of one of the oldest monotheistic religions. How they came into contact with the prophet Micah can be explained by Jews sent into exile by the Babylonians who later came under the rule of the Persians. Their meaning in the twenty-first century is that their presence represents the perennial wisdom that exists throughout the world, a wisdom that will find a path to truth for those who are seeking it.
The world of our making is never safe, and it wasn't safe for the infant/toddler Jesus. Herod is a symbol of the paranoia that always accompanies those who seek power. Any threat to power inches everyone in the way closer to death.
The journey into Egypt is a reverse of the Israelites escape from Egypt. Egypt in Jesus' day was a safer refuge for Jews than Jerusalem, a city in the throes of constant power struggles between religious leaders, potentates like King Herod and the Roman governors.
In the twenty-first century we must see Jesus as a refugee like the hundreds of thousands of refugees today on the move throughout the world. Every human has ancestors that were refugees at some point. Every person of European and Asian decent living in the U.S. is refugee of some kind. Those who follow Jesus cannot turn a blind eye to those seeking refuge.
The meaning of the mythos of Jesus' birth has many layers. I have touched on only what had seeped into my mind at this time. The reader may think of others, but from my perspective what I have written here will suffice for the present.
The next post in this series will be address the mythos attached to Jesus' baptism in the Jordan.
Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
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