It is Christmastime. Families gather; music is in the air. Christmas has become a holiday, a time for exchanging presents and cards, for seeing friends and family.
This year, Christmas dawns as Gaza is being bombed. Nearly 20,000 are dead, more than half of them children. Over 1 million have been displaced from their homes. Starvation and disease are on the march.
There will be no Christmas celebration in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus and the site of the Church of the Nativity. Palestinian Christians living in Bethlehem have canceled Christmas celebrations in solidarity with the people in Gaza.
Surely, it is time to recall the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas is literally the mass for Christ, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and a time for prayer, reflection, for service. The story of Jesus speaks to us to this day.
He was born more than 2,000 years ago in the West Bank, then under Roman occupation. Joseph and Mary, were ordered to go far from home to register with authorities. The innkeeper told Joseph there was no room at the inn. Jesus was born on a cold night, in a stable, lying in a manger. He was an “at risk” baby. His earthly father was a carpenter, a worker, not a prince or a banker.
He was born at a time of great misery. Prophets predicted the coming of a new Messiah who would rout the occupiers and free the people. Many expected a mighty warrior like the superheroes of today’s movies. Fearing the prophecy, the Roman King Herod ordered the “massacre of the innocents,” the slaughter of all boys two and under in Bethlehem and the nearby region.
Jesus confounded both Herod’s fears and the people’s fantasies. He was a prince of peace, not of war. He gathered disciples, not soldiers. His ministry, as written in Isaiah 62:1, was “the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” We will be judged–he taught us, not for our wealth or our armaments but by how we treat “the least of these,” how we treat the stranger on the Jericho Road. He called on us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and comfort the refugees. He threw the moneylenders from the Temple and gathered the discarded, the disdained, and the disabled around him.
He became a great liberator through his teachings and his example, not his sword. He converted rather than conquered. He accumulated no worldly wealth and held no official position. The powerful feared his teachings and plotted his crucifixion. Yet he succeeded beyond all imagination to transform the world. The Prince of Peace taught us that peace is not merely the absence of violence but the presence of justice and righteousness.
Today, as the world witnesses the continuing horror in Gaza, an immediate ceasefire and massive emergency humanitarian relief are imperative. “Blessed is the peacemaker,” Jesus taught us, and this Christmas, we are all called to join the call for peace in the Middle East.
The true meaning of Christmas should not be lost in the wrappings and ribbons. Let us remember this holiday once meant a holy day. Jesus was neither partisan nor politician, yet his birth and his ministry were immensely political – both in the expectations of the people and in the fears of the powerful. Instead of turning us on one another, he called each of us to our highest selves, summoning our better angels. He demonstrated the world-changing power of love. This Christmas, this surely is a message not merely to remember but to practice.
You can write to the Rev. Jesse Jackson in care of this newspaper or by email at jjackson@rainbowpush.org. Follow him on Twitter @RevJJackson. ©2023 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Thank you for reading Jesse Jackson’s article on scoopusamedia.com. To read additional informative articles, please subscribe to Scoop USA Media. Print subscriptions are $75.00 and online subscriptions (Print, Digital and Vizion) are $90. (52 weeks/1 year)
