Miracle of Christmas Review

This past Saturday my family went with a group from church to see a very "off Broadway" show, "Miracle of Christmas." It is put on by Sight & Sound Theatres at the Millenium Theatre in Ronks, Pennsylvania and depicts the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. Our group seemed to enjoy it, but as usual I couldn't stop myself from analyzing it theologically. What follows are some of my observations.

First, Mary, Joseph and everyone else directly involved were depicted as being completely aware that this was God Himself coming into the world. Though I do believe in the doctrine of the Incarnation, I don't believe the people of God began to grasp that this is what had happened until after Christ's resurrection. The show perpetuated the erroneous notion that "Messiah" meant "God-in-the-flesh" to first century Jews. It didn't.

Second, the presentation emphasized, correctly for the most part, the oppression of the Jews by the Romans. It failed to elaborate on the complicity of Jewish aristocrats in the Roman system, but then that would have made it as dull to watch as the opening credits of Star Wars Episode I. The real failure in this regard was that it portrayed the physical oppression apart from the spiritual reality, then went on to explain Jesus' coming in terms of deliverance from personal sin. More on this in a later post.

Third, in order (I suppose) to achieve the evangelistic aims of the theatre, the death of Christ on a cross was presented as something expected by Mary and others. One of the shepherds even sang mournfully at the stable about the cross. Anachronistic, to say the least.

There were a number of other oddities as well, such as the innkeeper and his wife understanding that this was the sin-bearing Messiah in their stable (and showing no difficulty in being persuaded of this). Then, though, the shepherds came in and were said to be "the first to know" about Messiah's birth.

By now you are probably thinking I'm a terrible grump (some folks who know me personally surely share your opinion), but I really wasn't miserable and grumbling through the entire show. In fact, it was a very enjoyable outing with family and friends. I raised no objections to anyone about what we had seen, choosing instead to reserve them for this blog. No one who goes to see "Miracle of Christmas" will be any more misled than they were before, because if they know what I know it won't change their minds, and if they didn't then they'll either learn something (together with a few correctable misconceptions) or simply see what they already believe.

The acting, singing and effects were all worthwhile, and the show is completely family-friendly. See it if you can, but keep your thinking cap on!