By Toki Blah
As winter ushers in December with its cold, clear frosty mornings, we soon realise that the Season for Good Cheer is upon us. Christmas is at hand. It’s the season for rejoicing. The season to think of friends and loved ones when the urge to give overwhelms all other emotions. As we walk along the bustling sidewalks of Shillong; bumping into excited children with stressed out parents in tow; listening to the hawkers hawking their wares, it’s what must have inspired the lyrics “City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style, in the air there’s a feeling of Christmas”. That feeling of Christmas! Of Christmas day with its Christmas trees, Christmas stockings, khlieh sniang and jadoh, Christmas cakes and candy and all those eagerly awaited, gift-wrapped presents. It’s the yuletide season for presents to be given and opened. It’s also time to travel back to that First Christmas 2000 odd years ago and to find out what presents it had to offer.
The Gospel of St Luke Ch. 2 : 8-16 describes in vivid detail how the shepherds, keeping the night watch over their flocks on a cold Judean hillside, came to know about the birth of our Lord. The angels came to tell them about it. They were told of the birth of a baby boy who has come to bring joy to the World. To all the people. (Important to note he came not only for Christians but for every human being on this Earth. Why then is Jesus presented as a God only for Christians remains a mystery). He is in fact God’s present to the whole World. The shepherds found this present swaddled in baby clothes lying in a manger. Mathew Ch. 2:1-2 gives a different take. This Gospel tells us about three wise men. Astronomers? Kings? Philosophers ? No one really knows, but the trio used their knowledge and learning, read the signs in the heavens, travelled far and wide, to search and express obeisance to the new born prince. When they did find him they paid him homage and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
On that remarkable night 2000 years ago, two types of people came to know of the birth of Christ. The shepherds- illiterate, poor, as smelly as the animals they tended; probably belonging to the lowest strata of Judean society. They were informed of the event; they believed what they heard and they set forth in search of the stable and the baby in the manger. The wise men- intelligent, knowledgeable and understandably cautious but most probably also rich and powerful personalities, who through their knowledge, believed that they were witnessing the birth of a high potentate and went out in search of him. In the world today, like 2000 years ago, there are those who are told about Jesus and there are those who accept without questioning, his existence because of their own experience and wisdom. This year too, like of old, both types will come to celebrate, rejoice and make merry, in memory of that remarkable birthday so long ago.
A story perhaps is in order. Once there was a group of people who decided to throw a great birthday bash for their leader. It does not matter what group it was. They might have been a corporate business group out to honour the birthday of their CEO. It might have been a Department of the Government, throwing a party for their Minister or it might have been ordinary members of a Dorbar out to honour someone from their community. Whatever the case, a big party was planned, people assigned their respective duties, detailed party arrangements made, all the high and the mighty invited, in short an event to outdo all other events of the year. The great day arrived and everyone was having a good time when suddenly it was discovered that the person in whose honour the party was being held was nowhere to be found. Consternation everywhere, and Horrors of Horrors, it was finally discovered that no one had bothered to invite the person in whose honour the party was being held! What a shame! It is certainly hoped that this Christmas none of us are found guilty of such a blunder. It certainly is not a Christmas message one would like to send out to the world.
So what message does Christmas hold for you and me? 2000 years ago on the West bank of the Tiber, stood Rome the Capital of the Roman Empire. Rome epitomised the military-cum- financial power centre of the world so much so to give birth to the adage ‘all roads lead to Rome’. On the Imperial throne of Rome sat Octavianus Augustus Caesar, the First Roman Emperor and perhaps the greatest Caesar of them all. He was a patron of the arts and emperor of the greatest empire the world has then ever known. Caesar’s Palace symbolised the pinnacle of wealth, art and culture of the times. It was the seat of power, presenting state of the art structural design and architecture. On the Eastern end of the Empire, on a cold bleak hillside of Judea, on the outskirts of a small town called Bethlehem, stood a ramshackle, dirty, smelly stable with its equally stinking manger. The last place on earth we expect to find hope, joy or for that matter, anything related with the wellbeing of mankind. Yet a strange thing happened. Soon the mighty Palace and the humble stable would meet on the battle field and engage in mortal combat. It was a struggle where no quarters were asked and none given. It was a fight to the death. It’s a strange world that we live in for when the dust of battle finally settled, the lowly, humble stable stood triumphant and victorious over the haughty Palace.
Actually the meaning and the real message of Christmas was given to mankind long ago. It was delivered to the shepherds on that cold Judean hillside mentioned above. “Joy to the World and Peace to all men. Rejoice for among you a saviour is born”. Christmas, the birth of Christ, in actuality is not the simple story about the birth of a Christian God. It’s not even about God himself. It’s about love; the power of love; the conquering ability of love and the everlasting love of God for his creation -man. That was the first message from that first Christmas. It is a message as valid then as it is today. A Deliverer was born to save man from sin, the greatest of which is the evil man is capable of inflicting on his fellow men. The atrocities of war and bloodshed; of bearing false witness and of deceit, of domination, pillage, rape and slavery- the bane and scourge of humanity ever since the dawn of history. Christmas is the story of God’s gift to mankind; a present designed to overshadow hatred and greed; overpower arrogance and pride; overcome the sword or any other lethal man-made weapon yet to be invented. Christmas is the story about the greatest gift the world has ever known. Its greatness enhanced by the fact that it is for me; for you as well as for everyone. It can be shared. The gift of Love and Peace to all mankind. That’s what Christmas is all about and will forever be. John 3:16 describes it all – “For God so loved the World that he gave his only son, so that everyone who so believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.”! May the joy and peace of Jesus Christ be with all of you this Christmas and forever.