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The
One and Only
Rev. Hugh Reid
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And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring
you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who
is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you:
you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a
manger."(ESV)
It happens
from time to time so I take little notice. But a couple of weeks
ago, it happened on consecutive days, so I began to wonder and started
to reflect on the implications. On consecutive days someone was
sure that I was someone else.
The first
time, I was standing in line in a grocery store. A little boy ran
toward me with a big smile, calling to his mom, "It's Doctor
so and so!" His mother smiled at me apologetically and said,
"No, it's not Doctor ….." but then she did a double
take and added "but it sure looks like him." Next day
in a different lineup, a cashier looked at me longer than she had
any right to do and then said, "Weren't you here this morning?"
No, I said. She persisted, "Are you sure?"
Some will
tell you everyone has a doppelgänger (German
for double walker). As I said, I've been told before "I just
saw your double!" I've often wondered if I saw the person in
question would I be flattered or humbled? Would I notice them if
I passed them on the street or would the resemblance, so certainly
seen by another, be entirely lost on me? And in this day when identity
theft is an issue, my imagination runs a little wild with the question,
could they impersonate me? I would hope that whatever the outward,
superficial resemblance, anyone who knew me would know me.
When we come
to the person of Jesus, and the identity of the living God who comes
to be with us in Jesus, I hear a lot of misidentification. From
people who ask sometimes out of great pain, "Why would God
allow this?"—thinking that they're speaking of the God
I know in Jesus—to the theme oft-repeated in pseudo-historical
books and internet sites that older pagan stories of birth, death
and resurrection are doppelgangers for the birth and life
of Jesus. "Mithras, Dionysius, Perseus, etc., don't they have
virgin births, don't they die and rise?" they say.
The fact of
the matter is: there is neither resemblance nor dependence. A lot
of such claims have roots in work done by the so-called, History
of Religions School (Religiongeschichtliche schule). This
was a small group of German scholars that published toward the end
of the 19th and the first two decades of the 20th century. In the
century since, the research of these scholars has been demonstrated
to have been based on false premises and assumptions, inaccurate
dating, a lack of knowledge, and the old trap of rearranging and
ignoring facts to fit a preconceived theory.
No matter
how you receive and regard the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke,
they are not akin to pagan stories. Typical mythological stories
have an anthropomorphic, male god who lusts after congress with
a human female after which there is no virginity. In the stories
of Matthew and Luke, there is no lust, no male god, only the Holy
Spirit (in Greek spirit is neuter in gender in Hebrew feminine)
a courageous young woman "who knew not a man" and the
event of a new creation. In the case of two favourite purported
"parallels," Mithras and Dionysius, Mithras is born a
grown man out of a rock and Dionysius out of Zeus' thigh. These
don't bear much resemblance to the birth of Jesus. Where parallels
exist research has shown consistently the Christian story precedes
the pagan. A case in point is Zoroaster, a Persian figure who is
mentioned in ancient sources about 1000 BC. He is named by Tom Harpur
(quoting third hand) as a model for Jesus. But while Zoroaster appears
before Jesus any association of him with virgin births in ancient
manuscripts comes from the 9th century AD. Never mind the fact that
these figures are born gods and Jesus is born a fragile infant.
It is the unique Christian story of grace, a God who's divinity
is constituted by emptying the divine self and being born in the
form of a servant. Today many pseudo-scholars are simply publishing
misinformation they have received third hand from the universally
discredited research of the history of religions school.
Most important
of all, and a point that seldom makes it into these discussions
is the truth that unlike the mythological figures, Jesus enters
real time in a real place, our time and place. A world occupied
by Caesar and Herod, taxation and tiredness, mangers and swaddling
clothes. Jesus enters the grittiness of our lives and the events
of our world to share its suffering and trials. This reveals the
unique identity of the living God incarnate in him, the God who
reveals divine power as love, and ultimate power as faithful covenanting
love. This is not love in general or as an abstract principle, but
a particular love through a particular identity who comes to be
with you and for you in a particular way.
You are like
no other to those who know you and love you. This God who loves
you is like no other and comes to us in a real history like no other.
It is not the God of pie in the sky, wishful thinking, or of our
tribe, race, or ideology, it is the living God. As we grow in knowing
Jesus, we will be able to tell the difference and know the difference
this makes for all creation and forever. Merry Christmas!
Yours uniquely,
Rev. Hugh D. Reid.
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