The Mystery of Christmas

Last updated on: December 16, 2020 at 1:15 am by Ben Witherington

The Mystery of Christmas 2020-10-28T15:09:10-04:00 Ben Witherington

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13 years ago in 2006 I was involved in the CBS production of ‘The Mystery of Christmas’ filmed in the lands of the Bible— Here’s the original trailer…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7XjRlBX1S8

Not long before this Peter Gomes’ bestseller, ‘The Good Book’ came out with a chapter entitled ‘The Bible and Mystery’ He opens his discussion with the following remark—‘Mystery is not an argument for the existence of God; mystery is an experience of the existence of God.’ (p. 327). Now Gomes is not following the beaten track which leads to a God of the gaps theory— if we cannot explain something, then we call it ‘an act of God’ or the like. Of course the problem with that whole approach is that as human knowledge and science continue to develop and grow, the need for the ‘God’ explanation shrinks. No Gomes is not using ‘mystery’ and the allowance for mystery as a way to squeeze God into the picture in a skeptical and secular world. What he is saying is that when one encounters mystery, wherever and whenever, one is actually encountering God in the thin places where the divine-human barrier is overcome. He stresses that the term ‘mystery’ in its secular use as in ‘a crime mystery novel’ is not what he’s referring to. He says such books would be better called a crime problem novel. Problems, even criminal head scratchers can be solved by human beings (see e.g. Sherlock Holmes). But mystery is not something that can be solved, but it can be experienced. Mystery goes beyond our capacity to figure something out entirely, and fit it in to our pre-existing mental categories. Indeed, encountering mystery expands our categories and vocabulary.

Now I think Gomes is definitely on to something. He takes time in this chapter to talk about why people flock to Christmas and Easter services who might not and do not normally darken the doors of church. He thinks it is in part because they want to be part of something, good, something joyful, something mysterious that is bigger than them, beyond the humdrum of daily existence. They want to be caught up in love and wonder and even praise. In short, they want to enter into mystery, and lose themselves and their immediate circumstances and problems for a while. They want to hear, see, smell something good and true beautiful, and just maybe they remember that Jesus said ‘unless you turn and become as a child, you shall not enter the Dominion of God’. Even jaded, cynical people come hoping to find again that child-like wonder at the mysterium tremendum.

One last thing. The word mystery comes from the Greek musterion which in its first sense means the revelation of something otherwise unknown. If God had not made it known, no mortal would ever know it. Mystery is what John Donne was talking about when he said ‘Twas much when man was made like God long before/ But that God was made like man—- much more!’ Amen!

If that’s not mystery, I have no clue what mystery is.

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