Christmas 2025
I find this a fascinating picture, so much detail! It is the work of Bruegel and is his representation of Mary and Joseph finally reaching Bethlehem so that they can be registered. You can easily recognise Joseph as he carries a large saw over his shoulder.
The sun is setting as they arrive. The building to the left seems to be both an inn and the government tax office (note the red plaque with a crown and double headed eagle) where people are being registered. There are people busy with daily tasks – slaughtering a pig, gathering firewood, hauling goods, assembling a timber framed building, warming themselves around a fire, sharing a drink in a temporary tavern – and children playing.
It is also a scene that shows the faults and frailties present in the world. There are men brawling, and soldiers standing-by – are they there to defend or subjugate the people? There is a man emerging from a small shelter – he’s a leper with his warning clapper in his hand. Behind his hut someone is tending – or pilfering – what ever is kept there (are they plants or rabbits?)There is also a broken down wagon, its wheel stuck in the snow. There are a group of people sheltering from the cold in another rudimentary shelter – and the severe cold is clearly something they are all having to contend with. And in the background is a ruined castle – lack of money or the result of a siege? And of course there are the tax collectors.
In Bruegel’s picture, Jesus will be born in a world of poverty and oppression, of men fighting and children playing, a place where people struggle to make life work for them. If we could envisage Bethlehem in the time when Jesus was born, what would that world have looked like? Again it would have featured poverty and oppression, a place controlled by foreign soldiers and a remote king. It would have been full of people some who were rich and some who struggled, some who were rejected and some who were revered. A place where people could be exploited to suit the aims of others.
Contrary to some of our carols and Christmas cards, Jesus was born into a world where things were flawed. God became human in a discordant world where there was evil and wrong doing. Bruegel asserts the same truth in his painting.
And sadly the truth is not much different this year. But somehow this is where I think I find hope. God comes to us, to be alongside us, when we most need that divine love. God doesn’t wait for us to overcome our faults before seeking us out. I think we celebrate Christmas not because we’ve solved all our problems, but because we need the reassurance that God always comes to us in love, and that of all things, love is the most powerful.
The Green Tau 