Of Cows Calves & Christmas Chaos

Searching for the meaning of Christmas:

Driving back from a hustling and bustling Newcastle preparing for its Christmas profits, my wife and I happened across a cow and new-born calf at Mt Kanwary. For us born-and-bred, city folk this was entirely new. To be sure, this was no classy maternity ward copiously supplied with drugs-on-tap and decorated with every bell and whistle as we would expect for our family.

We saw mother give this minutes-old offspring her undivided attention as she licked it where it dropped. It just lay right there in the open, in its birthplace, wobbling its head among the bugs, flies, dung and every other unsanitary thing. It was contrary scene: so beautiful in its natural purity and so confronting in its rawness. What a peculiar place to be born, the family-historian in me mused.

Most of us know where we were born. Perhaps Western Suburbs Hospital, like me, or the Mater like my wife and kids. Maybe Maitland’s Birthing Suite; at least some intended and respectable place, unless it was a taxi. I also wondered where exactly was Jesus born? “In Bethlehem, in a manger, because the Inn was full, as the Good Book says,” I hear some say, reflecting my own traditional background, to a degree.

When a kid I did not understand what a manger was. It was a barn, yes? At least it was as special and as fancy as the strange word suggested. It didn’t really matter for I was focused on those presents. Much later I was surprised to learn that a manger was a feed-trough! What? They laid their new-born in a chewed-over, saliva-dribbled and snorted-upon, animals’ food trough? Could God allow such a thing, for his Son? What about something more palatable, like our popularized, up-market crib in a super-elegant and hermeneutically sealed barn, located in an idyllic, star bright and blissfully sleepy Bethlehem, according to the greeting cards and hymnals?

A thousand years of European ‘Christian’ tradition, we find, gives us a Caucasian Mary and Joseph kneeling adoringly by a halo-lit white-skinned, baby Jesus, with a couple of shepherds and three fancy-dressed wise men. This is all chaos-free; and, without another person in sight, just some cows, a sheep or two, and the iconic donkey. Our modern portrayals include streams of flashing, coloured lights, the omnipresent Santa, his magical reindeers, even Bart Simpson, or Snow White and her seven dwarfs. Clearly, anything goes.

But what were the circumstances of Jesus’ birth? I once thought Jesus was born in the street, but the Bible doesn’t indicate that, in fact it indicates very little. What about: Joseph, on entering the town with a ready-to-deliver Mary, being turned away at the reception counter by some blasé inn-keeper, causing them to go to some back-alley barn? No, none of that. What about a make-everything-perfect Santa – surely he was there to make everyone happy? Nope. Not a one.

What we do read is that Mary and Joseph were in their birth-town of Bethlehem for the census of Qurinius, about 5 - 4 BC [1]. As for the many other visitors they most probably were accommodated with family or friends. While there Mary went into labour, but there was no suitable space in the upstairs “Guest Room”. A house in Bethlehem was commonly of two levels within one enclosed space. It sheltered everything, including the barn with its animals at ground level [2]. So, Mary laid Jesus in a feed-trough downstairs near the animals, next to where he was probably born. Upstairs, we can understand, was quite chaotic and noisy, with some very excited at this new birth; of the One who came to save those who wanted God to rule in their life.

But, Jesus’ birth, I suspect, went largely unnoticed by ever so many occupied by the hustle and bustle of an over-crowded, back-country town stretched to the limit of its social pleasantness and of its civic and commercial resources, as it tries to cope with the demand of the influx of thousands, with their grunting camels, shopping carts and raging traffic. Sound familiar?

Will Jesus’ birth and life go largely unnoticed again this year? If this Christmas is like any other it most certainly seems that way. Aye? What? Think about Jesus -- born a Jew, The Israelite, of middle-eastern appearance? Wasn’t he the One who said, unless a person is re-born and believe that God sent Him in the flesh, to die for humanity and rise again, they could not enter God’s kingdom? Do you mean Jesus of Bethlehem said that? Yes. That is what Christmas is all about.

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[1] Matthew 1:18-2:12 and Luke 2:1-20 are the only gospel naratives of Jesus' birth.
[2] "Guest House" is the most likely translation of the Greek kataluma.

For further discussion on the circumstances of Jesus' birth refer: J.B. Green, "Birth of Jesus" in “Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels.” (IVP. 1992) p.69.

This article was published in the December issue of our village paper, Paterson PSST, and in the Weekend Magazine of the regional newspaper "Maitland Mercury" of 20041224 under the title of "Searching for the meaning of Christmas" .
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