Many
people in Europe and North America are worried about the current influx of migrants and
refugees. One argument used by some of these people is the fear that the
arrival of thousands of migrants from the Middle East will somehow erode “Christian
values”. I wonder what Christian values they are talking about. Christmas will
soon be upon us, and I stumbled on a couple of interesting incidents in the
Bible narrative surrounding Christmas. So bear with me as I outline some of
the “Christian values” which I see in the Christmas story.
“We three kings of Orient are
...”
In
chapter 2 of Matthew’s gospel we read of “wise men” who arrived in Bethlehem
from a country in the east, bringing gifts for the newly born Jesus, whom they
described as the “new-born king of the Jews”. We are not told how many wise men
there were, we merely read that they brought three extremely expensive gifts.
The traditional interpretation in most churches is that there were three (and only
three) of them, and that they were kings. This version is re-enacted in
children’s plays in churches and schools throughout the western world. But the
real surprise in the story lies elsewhere.
Cultural and religious misfits
Jesus
was born as a Jew. The narrative of his birth, life, death and resurrection in
the Bible is full of references to prophecies in the Jewish Scriptures, which
churches refer to as the “Old Testament”. But the wise men from the East who
came to pay their respects to the little baby were not familiar with the Jewish
Scriptures. They got their information from watching the stars. They were not
Jews, nor were they Christians. They were astrologists. Their cultural and
religious background was completely different from the normal environment which
is presented in the Bible. But in the biblical narrative, these differences are
not emphasised at all. The central point of the Christmas story is the baby
Jesus. People came from different social, cultural and religious backgrounds to
honour him. The narrative in the Bible does not build walls between different
world views. It simply points us to Jesus as a person.
Political crisis
However,
the visit of the wise men did lead to immense political problems. This was
because politicians heard about the “new-born king of the Jews” and felt
threatened. The king of Judea at the time, Herod, wanted to solve the problem
by killing the new baby. He tried to enlist the wise men as spies to help him.
And when this intrigue failed, he massacred dozens of babies and toddlers. But
he failed to kill Jesus. The narrative in Matthew’s gospel tells us that his
father, Joseph, was forewarned in a dream, and that the family therefore fled
to Egypt.
A refugee child in Egypt
So
in his formative years Jesus lived for a while as a refugee in Egypt. The Bible
does not tell us how long this lasted – perhaps a few months, perhaps two or
three years. In our modern world, there are thousands upon thousands of refugee
children, many of them from the Middle East. I wonder how it affects our
“Christian values” if we remember that Jesus was in exactly the same situation.
Today there are many refugees who have fled from Egypt looking for a safe place
to live in another country. Some of them are now friends of mine in Germany.
But in the days of Jesus, Egypt was apparently a safe country which was able to
harbour those who were politically persecuted in other countries.
My personal “Christian values”
As
a practising Christian, I consider it important to be friendly and tolerant to
everybody, as far as this is possible. I am pleased to live in a country
(Germany) in which many people say “Welcome” to refugees. I am pleased to be a
member of a church which has open arms for people from other cultures. I am
always happy to hear other languages around me, even when I can’t understand
what people are saying.
What about the problems?
Of
course there are problems. Managing the massive influx of hundreds of thousands
of refugees, even in an affluent country like Germany, is an enormous task. I
do not envy the politicians who have to find practical solutions on a day to
day basis. And there will always be friction between people with different
political and social opinions.
The
important question for me is not whether we all agree in the issues of the day.
My central concern is our underlying attitude. Are we willing to be open for
everyone? Do we want to build walls between people, or do we want to build
bridges? We need to know what we want before we can start arguing about how to
achieve it.
