This column is about the meaning I find in Christmas. Whatever meaning you find, may you be blessed and find meaning. Maybe you’ll find some here. My prayer is we respect others, no matter what they believe… or not.
    I know: one big ask. Too much for a deity? Not to much for some super deity who defeated death and rose, if you believe. Free will is important, however, help please?
  The reason for the season has become far more than a child not born on the date we celebrate his birth. But there are those who only want it to be Super Jesus: able to defeat death at a single roll of a rock. Coming back to send villains to eternal torment: “villain” defined as anyone who doesn’t accept dogma.
    I reject that as a perversion of what the historical Jesus taught.
    The meaning of Christmas has become more than dogma. More than gifts, more than some guy in a red suit, more than miracles, or greed, or corporate profits. More than families gathering together. More that a manger or wise men. Yes, even more than someone born longer ago than 2000 years ago.
    Somehow; from atheists, to agnostics, to many faiths, to all the various flavors of Christian Christmas lights up the month.
    Overall, if you’re looking for miracles this may be the most important one. Not some star in the sky, nor virgin birth, but that something born of a pagan festival then shifted to the messiah can bring people together no matter what we think or believe.
    Though it may be heresy I think Jesus would have been OK with that too. His message, his lessons weren’t all about, “Celebrate me!!!” Jesus never demanded that doubting Thomas be cast out of the group. No one that we know of checked true believer credentials at The Sermon on the Mount.
    The message, regarding humility, forgiveness, and generous care for our neighbors, was universal.
    Personally I believe historical Jesus would have appreciated and approved that many of us of all faiths, or none, find personal meaning in his birth. Even though the date is wrong. The biblical Jesus was no cut the centurion’s ear off/murder the Romans dude. He generally welcomed people to follow him.
    I know this doesn’t follow the Jesus as part of one in three/Trinity dogma, but the very human Jesus appeals to me. Jesus as God, for me, ruins the story. One who could have skipped the pain. Killed his captors. Not asked the very revealing question only a human would ask, about being forsaken.
    So much religion focuses on his super powers, tying in virgin birth and angels.. so much also attributed to other beings thought of a Gods. The very human nature of Jesus really has been “forsaken.”
    One part of three suffering for the sake of suffering? That is too similar to praying in public to impress others. “See I can suffer just like you!” The kind of thing Jesus condemns as the province of hypocrites.
    But Jesus as human who went to his death, who preached render unto Caesar, those without sin cast the first stone…. that is something that appeals. Cut away the attempts to deify Jesus out of his human nature and what you have is a great story about a human perhaps closer to the divine than anyone has ever been.
    Considering the constant reframing and spinning of the far more recently dead: from Lincoln to MLK, it’s no surprise the life of Jesus was spun after Calvary. This is no historical anomaly. People keep trying to reframe Lincoln, JFK, MLK. The dead are all too convenient targets for those whose interest is getting the dead on their side.
    Far too much of our Jesus focus is about finding the some magic cup, or relics with magic or, all the super Jesus stuff. Not what he taught, not the lessons in the parables.
    It’s when we rise above our lesser, even terrible, impulses that we approach the divine. It’s when we honor the best in an otherwise fallible humans that we honor that person and ourselves, better ourselves. Despite failings.
    It’s when we elevate humans into Gods that we get in trouble.
    For me the very human story of Jesus lifts us up. Shows how we were made in the image of the divine.
    No matter what you believe, or don’t believe, Jesus deserves to be honored and loved not because he was a God, but as a human he strived to be the best of, and to better, humanity.
    Finding good, revealing the best, having good will, loving your neighbor and the stranger. Seems to me all that IS divine.

     Not all columns are posted on alternate sites. If you feel you have missed one please go to endofthenet.org

                                    -30-

    “Inspection” is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 50 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
©Copyright 2025
Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions.
All Rights Reserved.