It is not historical criticism, searching for the essential message, which has emptied the Christmas message and the Christmas feast of meaning, but on the one hand the trivialization of these things, reducing them to a romantic idyll, a cosy private affair, and on the other hand the superficial secularization and ruthless commercialization. As if the "holy infant so tender and mild" - not indeed in Luke and Matthew, but in the holy pictures - were always smiling and never cried in his very human misery (which is indicated, without any social-critical protest, by the crib and the swaddling clothes). As if the Savior of the needy, born in a stable, had not clearly revealed a partisanship for the nameless ones (shepherds) against the great ones who are named (Augustus, Quirinius). As if the Magnificat of the grace-endowed maid, about the humiliation of the mighty and the exaltation of the humble, about satisfying the hungry and sending away the rich, were not a militant announcement of a revision of priorities. As if the lovely night of the newborn child meant that we could ignore his work and his fate three decades later and as if the child in the crib did not already bear on his brow the mark of the cross. As if already in the announcement scenes (the center of the Christmas story) before Mary and the Shepherds - as later in the process before the Jewish tribunal, the complete profession of faith of the community were not given expression by bringing together a number of the majestic titles (Son of God, Savior, Messiah, King, Lord) and by ascribing these titles to this child instead of the Roman emperor here named. As if here instead of the illusory Pax Romana, brought by increased taxes, escalation of armaments, pressure on minorities and the pessimism of prosperity, the true peace of Christ were not announced with "great joy," founded on a new order of interpersonal relationships in the spirit of God's friendship for man and the brotherhood of men.
It is in fact obvious that the apparently idyllic Christmas story has had real social-critical (and, in the broadest sense, political) implications and consequences. This is a peace opposed to the political savior and the political theology of the Imperium Romanum which provided ideological support for the imperial peace policy, it is a true peace which cannot be expected where divine honors are paid to a human being and an aristocrat, but only where God is glorified in the highest and he is well-pleased with man. We need only to compare Luke's Christmas Gospel with the Gospel already mentioned of Augustus at Priene to see how the roles here are exchanged. The end of wars, worthwhile life, common happiness, in a word complete well-being, man's "salvation" and the world's - are expected no longer from the over-powerful Roman Caesars but from the powerless, harmless child.
Within the scope of the present work, these few references must suffice to confirm the fact that these infancy stories correctly understood are anything but innocuous, edifying accounts of the child Jesus, based on profound theological reflection, to be used in a carefully planned proclamation, seeking to portray artistically, vividly and in a highly critical light the true significance of Jesus as Messiah for the salvation of all the nations of the world: as Son of David, and the new Moses, as the commentator on the Old Covenant and the initiator of the New, as Savior of the poor and as true Son of God. Here then is obviously not the first phase of a biography of Jesus or a precious family history. It has much more the character of a Gospel; a message of invitation, according to which the Old Testament promises are fulfilled in Jesus, the chosen one of God, who did not provide any detailed political prescriptions and programs, but in his very existence, in his speech, action and suffering, set up an absolutely concrete standard at which man in his individual and social action can confidently aim.
Hans Kung: On Being Christian p 452-453
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