The One and Only
Rev. Hugh Reid

10 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.