Author, Simon.
Published, December 27, 2009.

Over at Credenda/Agenda, Peter Leithart has written a telling article reflecting on how Jesus has been de-politicised, and de-contextualised by films, churches, and Christmas carols. He blames (thanks, really)) Tom Wright for this realisation.

No film ever gives us what Wright says we should be looking for: a “crucifiable” Jesus, a Jesus who does something so provocative to make the Jews murderously hostile.  In the movies, Jesus is a hippy peace-child, a delicate flower of a man, a dew-eyed first-century Jewish Gandhi.  Why would anyone want to hurt Him?  Maybe because He’s so annoyingly precious; but that’s not the story of the gospels.

So very true. He goes on to use the contrast between Advent and Christmas carols to show how the Christmas Jesus has been thoroughly dumbed down, and the centrality of Israel lost:

Advent hymns are about Israel.  They are deeply and thoroughly political.  Advent hymns look forward not to heaven but the redemption of Israel and of the nations, the coming of God’s kingdom on earth.

When we turn to Christmas hymns, these themes almost completely drop out.  How many Christmas hymns mention Israel?  Many refer to Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus, but Jerusalem?

I really think he has a point! More generally, Jesus tends to get reduced to the aforementioned “dew-eyed, first-century Jewish Gandhi” by the church much of the time. Yet the scriptures are absolutely clear that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah of Israel. The word Israel either gets left out, or when it is mentioned nowadays, it is automatically brushed over or de-contextualised in the minds of Christians listening to a sermon or reading the Bible. I really think that the church that I know has forgotten the significance of the fact that Christ is in the bloodline of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. I believe that we conveniently disregard the clear scriptural truth that Jesus was all about Israel, and about bringing about massive political, cultural, and religious change. I hear him discussed like he was in some historical and scriptural vacuum. He wasn’t.

However, the gospel isn’t lost amongst this oversight. There is much richness and wonderful truth which we miss, though, when we lose the scriptural, historical and political context of Jesus of Nazareth. He came to do everything orthodox believers say he came to do. Much of Christian orthodoxy tends to forget an exciting part of the story, the story which the Bible tells. Remember the Old Testament? Have you ever wondered why it’s there? It’s because God really cares about his people, and wants us to know it. Jesus came to save them. And before you counter me from an epistle, read the opening few verses of Romans. Paul says he was “descended from David”. Go to the end of Romans, and read Romans 15:12. It’s there in the passage about the Gentiles - Jesus was “the root of Jesse”. Paul knew that Jesus was the climax of the story of Israel. It s beyond me how we can forget this, even though the words of our Saviour himself make it abundantly clear. I’ll give the final work to Leithart:

As it turns out, Wright is no Grinch.  He didn’t steal Christmas.  What he stole was a false Christmas, a de-contextualized and apolitical Christmas.  But we shouldn’t have bought that Christmas in the first place, and should have been embarrassed to display it so proudly on the mantle.  Good riddance, and Bah humbug.

Read the whole article here.