During this Christmas season, the nativity scene is one of the most beloved images in many churches and homes. But this year, there is a nativity scene in the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem that shocked the world. It includes the traditional nativity characters, but the baby Jesus lies in a pile of concrete rubble. The image makes an immediate connection with the horrible phots and videos of children, some alive and some dead, being pulled out of the rubble of bombed buildings in Gaza. On Christmas Eve, the pastor of the church, the Rev. Munther Isaac, delivered a powerful prophetic message titled “Christ Under the Rubble.” The video is posted below. I urge you to take the time to watch and reflect on his message. As a Palestinian Christian, he challenges his fellow Christians in our nation to recognize and repent of the ways that we have viewed and treated Palestinians both historically and currently as less that equal human beings made in the image of God. Otherwise, we could not continue to tolerate and aid the massive and disproportionate violence and destruction that have claimed the lives of over 20,000 people in Gaza including 9,000 children to date. He makes a clear connection between the story of Jesus’ birth as a displaced marginalized person in an occupied land and the suffering and displacement of the civilians of Gaza. Here are just a few quotes from Rev. Isaac’s message that were especially meaningful and challenging to me:
“If we as Christians are not outraged by the genocide and the weaponization of the Bible to justify it, there is something wrong with our Christian witness, and we are compromising the credibility of our gospel message.”
“If Jesus were born today, he would be born under the rubble in Gaza…when we justify, rationalize, and theologize the bombing of children, Jesus is under the rubble…Jesus not only calls them his own, he is them. He is the children of Gaza.”
“While the world discusses the fate of the people of Gaza as if they are unwanted boxes in a garage, God in the Christmas narrative shares their fate…The majesty of the incarnation lies in its solidarity with the marginalized.”
None of Rev. Isaac’s message justified the horrific attacks, murders, and kidnappings by Hamas against Israel on October 7. He does call us to truly see and treat all people, especially those who are suffering and marginalized as equal brothers and sisters made in the image of God. That is the true meaning of Christmas and the way forward to peace.
