My old school chaplain at St Andrews Cathedral School taught me that the word 'Christmas' is really a combination of two words — 'Christ' and 'mass'. So it is Christ's mass. Being a low church Anglican, he made sure we understood that by mass, he didn't mean Mass. Then again, he also made sure we remembered that the word 'catholic' meant universal.
And so, with that in mind, I'd like to offer a very non-universal reflection of Jesus. It's my own personal theory of who Jesus was and why he is a very good reason for this season.
The first pertinent thing to say is that Jesus probably looked like someone who'd be on the wrong side of the Cronulla riot. He was born in a place called Beyt Lahm on the West Bank, which today has a giant wall passing through and around it. Many Western Christians are blissfully unaware of why the wall exists and how it makes a 'Two State Solution' to the conflict there virtually impossible.
Because Jesus was what one might call a Jewish Palestinian, he may have had olive skin and curly brown or red hair. When I was at school, the baby Jesus was always played by a blonde headed white skinned doll. Joseph and Mary looked very Anglo, while I played one of the three wise men from a faraway place called 'the East'.
My two wise colleagues were played by a Chinese girl and a boy from New Guinea.
Jesus was born into a family of internal refugees. His mother had to seek refuge, fleeing Herod's nasty dictatorship. I doubt even Saddam Hussein or the Taliban would have had a policy involving the industrial-scale slaughter of male infants.
Despite coming from an aristocratic family, Mary was forced to flee her home. It's uncertain whether she used the services of satanic people smugglers to get her to safety.
I believe Jesus' humble beginnings (not to mention the fact that I believe he was divinely inspired) led him to understand what it was like to be marginalised. He was born to a virgin, and in the Koran there is a passage which mentions the first time the baby Jesus made a public appearance.
Mary had made a vow not to speak in her own defence if asked how she could produce a baby when she wasn't married. The religious men present accused her of sexual impropriety. She pointed to the baby in the cradle who performed his first miracle by speaking out in defence of his mum.
I am indeed a servant of God: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet. And he hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and hath enjoined on me prayer and charity as long as I live. He hath made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable. So peace is on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised up to life again!
For me, this was the essence of Jesus the Messiah. Jesus was someone who spoke for those whom the rest of society marginalised. We see this in the New testament Jesus who was happy to spend time with tax collectors, fishermen and ladies of the night.
Who was Jesus' closest female companion? Who was the one who went to the Garden where his tomb was to rub herbs on his body in accordance with Jewish custom? Who was the one who spent so many hours and days with him? Who was the one who shared his own blessed mother's name?
Jesus had two Marys in his life. One was his mother, the one who miraculously conceived him while she was still a virgin. The Qur'an says she was chosen over and above the women of all nations.
And the other Mary? Some say she was a prostitute. I'm not sure if she was, but the point is this: Christ didn't waste time with wealthy Middle Eastern despots or the even wealthier neo-Conservative thinktanks of his day, seeking measly riyals or US dollars in return for loyalty. I doubt you'd find Jesus appearing in WikiLeaks.
Muslims believe Muhammad was known to make time for a woman in his city who suffered from schizophrenia. He also had a close friend Julaybib who had no known ancestry and apparently suffered from some physical deformities.
The word Sufi comes from the name given to poor starving semi-naked refugees who lived on a bench in the mosque and who became known as the People of the Bench ('ashab as-suffah'). They are the equivalent of today's street people.
Muhammad also spoke of the prostitute who finished her shift and went to the well. She saw a dog that was dying of thirst. She took pity on it, dropped her shoe into the well and dragged it out full of water for the dog. For showing kindness to a dog, the prostitute earned God's mercy and forgiveness.
Real Islam, real Christianity — indeed real religion — wants to rid us of pomposity and self-righteousness. God's prophets (including the Son of Man) made time for those whom society pushes away. Jesus, the child of a refugee, was there for everyone. I just cannot picture him, the son of a refugee, standing up and preaching for us to stop the boats.
First published in Eureka Street on 21 December 2010.
