No, of course the Christmas stories are not fairy tales.
Quick Review: Faith in God
As we said last week, quoting Hebrews 11:1, our Faith is not like a fairy tale. Christianity has substance. It is the evidence for things not seen. True Faith must always be grounded in Reason. Otherwise it would be blind faith, which might just as well be faith in fairy tales, or in SpongeBob SquarePants, or Vladimir Putin. Faith by definition then goes beyond reason, beyond what we can see or prove. The existence and order of the world, and its continuity, which we can see give evidence of God Whom we cannot see.
Evidence for the Reality of Jesus Christ
The authenticity of the Four Gospel accounts
Anyone who has read any of the ancient myths knows that the Gospel writers were not writing fairy tales. Pagan myths took place sometime in the misty past, if at all – but where? when? They sometimes conveyed general truths or expressed human emotions or desires, not specific information. Fairy tales began: “Once upon a time…”
But how does Matthew’s Gospel begin? “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” and so on up till the birth of Jesus Christ. Matthew 1:1. He placed the Lord right in the middle of history, as best he could determine it.
Likewise Luke immediately assures his benefactor that this is contemporary history: “Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilos, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.” Luke 1:1-3
He then begins his account of Jesus’ ministry not with “Once upon a time, in a land far away”…, but with: “In the fifteenthth year of the reign of 
Tiberius Caesar when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” Luke 3:1-3 Is that historical and geographical enough for you?!
Some contend that the Evangelists got some of the details wrong. Perhaps. But so what? That doesn’t negate their stated purpose, which was to say: This is no pagan myth, no fairy tale. This is history. Read a pagan myth. Read Saint Luke. The difference is self-evident.
We have more records of Jesus Christ than anyone else in ancient history – written or dictated or told by those who knew Him. “from the very beginning” Luke went back to the original sources for information.
Furthermore, the Gospel accounts were written and circulated while many who knew the facts were still alive, so if they had been wrong they would have been rejected – as indeed some other inauthentic fantastic “gospels” were. The Gospel accounts present a clear consistent picture of Jesus Christ, His life and death and what came after, and of Who He clearly claimed to be – the first three working out of a common source, though each adding (or sometimes abbreviating) materials he alone knew or thought were especially significant.
Why is the Fourth Gospel so different from the others? For two reasons: 1 This was the “inside story” from the man who had been Jesus’ closest companion, young John whom tradition says was his second or third cousin (or nephew?). An addendum, seemingly written by someone else, says that John’s Gospel came directly from the Apostle. John 21:23 2 Likely John, writing much later than the others, was including episodes which he thought it important not to be forgotten with the close of the Apostolic Age.
Who was Jesus of Nazareth?
The central point of the Gospel writers is that the salvation of mankind hung on the appearance of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in history, in the flesh. They tell the story of a Man whose teachings have guided mankind ever since. Even many who disbelieve in Him as the Son of God revere him as a great teacher.
However, in all the accounts, in passage after passage, Jesus spoke and acted as if He is God – “equal with God” John 5:18 – not a god but the one God. That was why they crucified Him and tried to get rid of Him.
But they couldn’t. He rose from death. We have four separate accounts of the Resurrection – not agreeing in details, just as one would expect from reports of such an incredible happening, but agreeing about what happened. Jesus the Christ rose from death, conquered death, opening our way into eternity. But also to prove the point: He is Who He said He was.
Therefore, as C S Lewis put it – I paraphrase – let’s have no foolish talk about Jesus being only a great teacher. Based on the given evidence (on what rational grounds would we reject it, except willful unbelief?), we have three choices: Either 1 Jesus was a charlatan. But charlatans disappear before the authorities can get them – and those who knew Him personally said He was without sin. 2 Or He was a madman. But you can’t read His brilliant teachings and think that. 3 Or He was Who He claimed to be. In some unfathomable way which we’ve been 
struggling to describe ever since, this Man is the One who created all things, the One who orders the universe from the farthest galaxy to the innermost subatomic particle, the One in whom the meaning of life and death and eternity, and the Way into eternity, have been opened to us. Jesus of Nazareth is the One true God – the Son of God, of the same “being/substance/essence” (no philosophical term is adequate) as God, Who came to earth incarnate as the Man Jesus of Nazareth and Who thereby revealed the depth of God’s love for us and His power over death – Who thereby has turned the world upside down.
Does the story of Jesus sound in some ways like the old myths of gods walking the earth, dying and rising gods? Yes, but only if we look at it superficially. In fact, it was the other way ‘round: In his book God in the Dock Lewis titled a chapter “Myth Became Fact”. He wrote that in Jesus Christ the things which mankind had dreamt about and hoped for in the ancient myths finally became Reality. The fairy tales had primed us for the Real Thing, so to speak.
A myth? a fairy tale? Nobody died because they were faithful to Osiris. Nobody gives his life for a fairy tale. Ask the Apostles who had seen it first hand. All but one were martyred rather than deny what they had seen, Whom they had seen.
There is very much more that could be said, but: Dear atheist friends, have you ever taken a serious look at the evidence for Jesus Christ?
So what about the Christmas Stories?
Our Orthodox Christmas Eve Gospel from Luke begins: “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.” Luke 2:1-2 We know when Caesar Augustus reigned, and there is independent historical record of Quirinius. Jesus’ birth was an historical event.
Our Christmas Day Gospel reading from Matthew is the same: “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?’” Matthew 2:1-2
I don’t mean to run this point into the ground, but it is obvious that Matthew and Luke present the Christmas stories in exactly the same way as their Gospel introductions. As history, definitely not as fanciful stories. Why ever would anyone believe that Matthew and Luke were making it up? that they introduced their accounts of the most important Fact in history with a pack of lies?
Where did these accounts come from? It seems clear that Matthew’s came somehow from Joseph: In Matthew, Joseph doubted, Joseph had a dream, Joseph led them to Bethlehem and into Egypt and so on. It couldn’t have come directly from Joseph himself, for he was long dead when Matthew wrote. * Most likely it had been passed down in the family. James, Joseph’s son by his first marriage, who was first Bishop of Jerusalem, seems a likely source.
- The Church’s earliest tradition was that Joseph had a first marriage and family before he married the Virgin. This was once common belief even in the West. There’s an old English carol: “Joseph was an old man, an old man was he, when he married Virgin Mary…”
Luke tells it from Mary’s side. The Angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin – you know the story well – and 
how she “kept these things in her heart”, that is, remembered them and “pondered them”, considered and absorbed their meaning. Luke says his purpose in writing was to give an orderly account of “the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.” Luke 1:1-2
Who was the “first eyewitness” of these events? The Virgin Mary. Tradition has it that Luke actually interviewed the Virgin Mary in her old age and even “painted” her first icon – perhaps explaining why her images from early times are almost always the same.
Now, historians were not present taking notes when the angel appeared to the Virgin Mary. Television personalities did not breathlessly anticipate and then describe the arrival of the Wise Men. (That’s fun to imagine. I think?) We couldn’t expect that kind of evidence. These were internal family events, not shared with anyone for quite a while. Can you imagine the Virgin Mary explaining to her neighbors in Nazareth that Jesus had no human father? what their reaction would have been?
Next consider how appropriate the Lord’s Nativity stories are: If this was the unique appearance
of God Himself in history, then it is entirely fitting that it be reflected in these remarkable events. He came to the lowly of this earth, so His Glory is revealed first to simple shepherds, by a sky full of angels. God the King who came to die receives the ancient symbols of gold for royalty, incense for deity, myrrh for burial. And since He came for the whole world, the Wise Men are Gentiles, foreigners. The stories hang together. They are “just right”.
And the central point of the Story was more than fitting: it was necessary. If God were to take human flesh, obviously He couldn’t take it from a father! He needed to be from of a Virgin Mother, so there could be no confusion about Who the real Father was
To which must be added the simple fact that the early Church accepted these stories from the beginning. As I said a while ago, many fantastic stories from many strange “gospels” were rejected. But not these.
The following was written to the Ephesians by Saint Ignatius Bishop of Antioch who was martyred early in the Second Century, when he was at least in his 90s (some say older) which means he knew the earliest leaders of the Church. I’ll include the entire passage because it is so profound, so beautiful:
“Hidden from the ruler of this age was the virginity of Mary and the one born from her, and likewise the death of the Lord. Three famed mysteries which God worked in silence. How then was He made manifest to the ages? A star in heaven shining beyond all of the stars and its light was ineffable. And its great newness brought about wonderment. The remaining stars with the sun and moon became a chorus for that star. And it exceeded, with its light, them all. And there was confusion: from whence did this great newness and strangeness come to them? By this, all magistry was destroyed and every evil chain disappeared. Ignorance was taken away. The ancient kingdom is destroyed utterly. God appeared as a human being in order to bring about the great newness of unending life. And that which had been planned by God was given a beginning. Therefore they all were troubled because the destruction of death was being prepared.”
The only question remaining is: If the Church has always accepted these Christmas stories, why ever would anyone reject them? So far as I can see, the only reasons would be: 1 Because someone does not believe in Jesus Christ. Then why accept the authority of anything Jesus did or said? 2 Or because the person doesn’t believe such things can happen. But we Orthodox have historical evidence of so many wonders even in modern times. We have seen and known so many things that “can’t happen”.
So which is the Fairy Tale?
This is important.
I think atheism is the wishful thinking, the irrational dream, the fairy tale that fulfills the modern desire for absolute freedom: If there is no God I have no Lord and Master, and so I can do anything I want with no consequences, no ultimate judgment. Wouldn’t that be nice if it were true?
No, it would not.
I think the atheist dream is a nightmare, a very “grim fairy tale”. The evil get away with it and die with no final accounting. The innocent suffer and die with no justice. There is no ultimate mercy, no love, no help, no hope. We’re on our own, folks, and there’s no happy ending. We die and that’s it..
That’s the “gospel” of atheism. This goes so contrary to what we all long for, to the depths of our being. I think it was G.K. Chesterton who said somewhere that if his only choice were between an atheist reality and a false fairy tale, he’d take the fairy tale in a minute. But those are not the only two choices.
That is why the Christian proclamation is called the Gospel, good news. People have always feared, like the atheists, that there is no hope, that in the end it’s bad news. The Gospel, the good news is that the beautiful things mankind has longed for and wished for and sometimes even dared to hope for are not fairy tales. They are true, they are what we were created for, and if we choose them, they can someday come true, in that Land where we will “live happily ever after”.
If you, dear atheists, want evidence for that, you have just heard it. Please don’t turn away in blind disbelief.
And if you, dear Christians, are afraid to think about your Faith for fear it’s a myth, think! Go for it! Jesus Christ is the Truth. He gave us brains for a reason. Never fear to think about anything. The whole Created Order is His.
At Christmastime and at all times, feel sorry for the poor atheists. How they manage to get through life without utter despair I don’t know. Or through death. An old nurse once told me she had witnessed the deaths of many Christians who died well, at peace, and also of one professed atheist who before he died just about climbed the walls.
At Christmastime and at all times, be glad and grateful for our Faith which – despite appearances sometimes, despite our fears sometimes – is built on solid evidence. Evidence that at the heart of Reality are goodness and mercy and joy and love and life and hope – and One who has come to earth to call us Home to be with Him forever.
For Christ is born! Glorify him!
