Enduring love despite oppression

Jesus Christ was born to a very poor family. The Jewish religion required the ritual offering of a lamb at the Jerusalem temple, at the birth of every Jewish child. Families that could not afford it could bring a pair of pigeons, and this is what Jesus’s parents gave, from which their poverty could be easily discerned. Another indication of their lack of means or contacts was their quiet acceptance of a smelly gaushala (cowshed) as the child Jesus’s birthplace when the serais (inns) were full. While the forecast was seven centuries old, that the Divine would be carried on earth by a virgin, its coming true meant that Jesus’s mother, Mary, was pregnant with him before her marriage, laying him open to being labelled illegitimate.

Equality was a fundamental value among Jews (and later, among Christians).

However, equality was and is easily corrupted in practice, especially in the name of priestly religion. The Jews that were the strictest in observing purity rituals and food restrictions, such as the Pharisees, looked down upon all other people. They referred to Jesus, a mere Kabir-like craftsman in their eyes, as “that fellow”. They were angry – to the point of eventually getting Jesus executed – that the son of a carpenter could explain their ancient scriptures moreauthoritatively than they could. In Indian history, too, death for pursuing scriptural knowledge was a real prospect, for the ancestors of the Dalits of today. However, Jesus’s lived experience of intimidation by the powerful was categorically different – he equated himself with God, and with the saviour predicted in ancient Jewish texts.

He laid out the rights of the oppressed – meaning the dalit, the unjustly imprisoned, exploited labourers, women used for sex, and many others. It is easy for the rich to impute motives when the poor choose to follow Christ.

They miss the stunning attractiveness of a God who chose to be born poor while He challenged the rich and powerful with the power of God rather than with the power of violence. He is one to whom Gandhi liked to sing ‘Abide with Me’. Christmas reminds us that Christ abides with us. His enduring love has drawn men and women, whether oppressed physically or mentally, with an allure that has stayed resilient through the centuries!