“Out of Egypt I’ve called my son.” Hosea 11:1

“When Herod was dead an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying ‘Take the Child and go to Israel.” Matthew 2:19-21

Some people don’t like Christmas. Can you believe it? I’m not talking about the curmudgeonly Ebenezeer Scrooge types. I’m referring to the good religious people. Some Christians don’t like it because it’s become too “commercialized”, though I have a feeling that they spend as much if not more than anyone else on gifts. Some don’t like it because there’s too much emphasis on Santa. They see Santa as an evil Anti-Christ type of character. They even rearrange the letters of his name to spell Satan. Honestly, I don’t think a figure who represents the spirit of good will and gift-giving is the biggest threat to our children or culture! And then there are those who don’t like Christmas because there’s no proof that Jesus was born on December 25th. They say that Christians sanitized the Roman Feast of Bacchanalia and sanctified it, so to speak, to be a day devoted to Christ instead of to Caesar. A lot could be said about that—but I want to pick up on this literalistic, legalistic, and dare I say Love-less perspective on the holiday. The three, I believe, go together. And Origen thought so too.

Who’s Origen, you ask? He’s the first of the really influential Fathers of the church. He lived at the end of the second century, having been born about 185. He lived during a time of severe persecution, in fact his father, Leonidas, was a martyr. Origen expected to be a martyr also, though he never was. He was a giant both intellectually (he was fluent in at least seven languages) and spiritually (writing countless volumes of works, most of which have been lost) and translating the scriptures into six languages. And though he was later condemned as a heretic by the Pope (Who DIDN’T the Popes condemn as heretics?) he probably did more than any other Christian theologian to systematize and defend the nascent Christian faith. He is such a fascinating and influential figure that I chose to wrote my Master’s thesis about him. Anyway, what does Origen have to do with Christmas? Simply this: He took the meaning figuratively!

His interpretation of the Scriptures was not literal, but rather typological. This was a cornerstone of his theology. To take the scriptures—especially the Old Testament– literally, he was convinced, was to fall into a legalistic trap that led one away from Christ, not closer to Him. On the one hand this is what the Jewish teachers of his time were doing. And on the other, this is what the early Gnostics were doing. The result is that both groups were led away from Christ, not closer to Him. And that, Origen believed, was the main point of the Scriptures—to lead people to Christ, who is the fulfillment not only of the Old Testament, but all of History as well.

So let’s take a look at the passage from Hosea quoted above. This was NOT written literally about Jesus. It was written about the Israelites roughly 800 years before Jesus was born! But this passage was applied to Jesus in a figurative or typological way, not only by Origen, but by other theologians, pastors and Christians throughout history and up to and including the present day. The verse from Hosea is paired with the one from Matthew to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of those words. But the only way one can do that is to interpret the passage figuratively!

Ok, so what does this have to do with Christmas? Simply this—by taking the celebration of it literally we miss the spirit! So a lot of money is spent on gifts, literally. Isn’t gift-giving a good thing? Isn’t the spirit of gift-giving to express love? Wasn’t Jesus himself presented with gifts by the Magi? And so we include a fat guy in a red suit who isn’t real. So what? Isn’t the joy and love that he represents worth a great deal? Wouldn’t the world be a much better place if people paid more attention to imitating and following Santa than say, politicians? And what if Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th? So what? Is it wrong to mark a day to celebrate His birth? To remember and rejoice in this sweet miracle of God’s love that has so powerfully impacted not only our lives, but the lives of so many others and the world as we know it?

So I guess what I’m saying is that it’s a good thing to interpret the scriptures, figuratively. By doing so we not only more fully experience the spirit of Christmas, but of God Himself!