Should the virgin-birth story be taken literally?

Recent questions from readers of Family and Religion include: Is it necessary for me to believe in a virginal conception or a virgin birth? Would something be wrong with my faith if I do not take the virgin-birth story literally?

Every year as I listen to the various sermons and read the various theses concerning the “virgin birth”, I am reminded that we often miss the essence of the nativity stories concerning Jesus of Nazareth. This also happens with our preoccupation with magical thinking concerning the miracles in the gospels.

Mark is the oldest of the gospel writings. He had absolutely no interest in a virgin-birth focus. In fact, he does not even carry a birth narrative. We know that where Matthew and Luke converge in their accounts, they got this from Mark’s writings. However, where they differ from each other, they had a special Matthean and special Lukan source.

To answer the question then, it is not necessary to hold to a literal take on virginal conception. For the Christian journey of faith, what matters is simply faith in God as revealed in Jesus Christ. This does not mean that you have to believe in a ridiculous way. I once heard a dear Christian lady noting that since Jesus said it, she believed that if you had enough faith, you could tell a mountain to move from one place to the next. Immediately, I started to hold faith that no one will ever have enough faith to move the Blue and John Crow Mountains to Westmoreland!

It is so liberating when you come to realise that nothing is wrong with you or your Christian faith just because you hold other views. You do not have to take the virgin birth narrative literally. Similarly, all Christians do not believe that Jesus turned water into wine. Some believe it was grape juice. Still others appear to be on a mission to turn the wine back into water. However, what really matters is the sacramental element of outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given by God. The symbol always points to the deeper reality!

While we keep focus on baby and manger and virginity, we may miss the profound radical message of turning the world upside down for transformed societies and peoples liberated from oppression and the forces of Babylon.

Some heavy political concerns preceded the birth of Jesus. Hence, we have Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, in Luke 1, saying in the Benedictus, “Blessed are you, Lord the God of Israel; You have come to your people and set them free. You have raised up for us a mighty Saviour born of the house of your servant David … .” Still in Luke 1, Mary, the mother to be of Jesus, speaks prophetic words in Israel, a colony of Rome. A place where they longed for freedom, respect, and autonomy. In the Magnificat, she says: “You have shown strength with your arm and scattered the proud in their conceit, casting down the mighty from their thrones and lifting up the lowly. You have filled the hungry with good things and the rich you have sent away empty.”

These are never words that the mighty and powerful ever long to hear. If you own slaves, then the freedom of slaves is never good news. If you benefit from an exploited workforce, then empowered employees is never good news. In Luke 18, the rich young ruler, after parading his observance of the commandments, was shocked to hear Jesus’ response. “On hearing this, Jesus told him, ‘You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me’.” This was not good news to the man who had just asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

John chapter 1 presents the doctrine of the incarnation. In verse 11, it is noted, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” Maybe his humble arrival was too much to process. In our time, maybe the Christmas frills and the focus on virginity and baby have clouded our capacity to engage heavy messages of justice, transformation of self, and the radical casting down of the mighty from their thrones.

In 2023, Jamaica must of necessity engage purposefully the call for the process of reparatory justice. Jamaica must on its journey to self-actualisation engage the process to become a republic. For too long we have lived with the consequences of colonial possession. To be possessed is to be controlled mentally, emotionally, economically, socially, by external forces that have no interest in our autonomy. No amount of Jingle bell songs, Santa sentiments, and manger scenes will bring the transformation we seek. We must know that this Christ of Nazareth is here with the ongoing proclamation of good news to the poor, the proclamation of freedom to the captives, sight for the blind, and yes, setting the oppressed free.

Christian theology teaches that God became flesh (incarnated) in order to redeem fallen humanity. God became fully human. There is a view then that if God became fully human, God had to do so in the same way you and I became human beings, notwithstanding the presence and power of life-giving force in the person of ‘Holy Spirit’. Another view is that if God is who we claim God is, then God did not have to side-step Joseph for a pregnancy to occur. The gospel writers had different emphases. Not only that. They did literary theology. That is, they wrote to make certain theological points. The essence then of the Good News of Jesus Christ is not the literal virginity of his mother, but what God would accomplish in and through Jesus the Christ. Got it? In antiquity, virginity was often associated with purity, holiness, and the sacred.

May we use these reflections as an opportunity to get back to basics. Get back to the message and mission of Jesus Christ. Mark emphasised very early in his first chapter a Jesus who is preaching the kingdom of God. He calls people to repentance and invites them to believe the Good News.

The kingdom of God is the reign of God. The reign of God is marked by justice, love, compassion, helping and healing, and reconciling. The kingdom of God is about the radical inclusion of the ostracised, othered, and wronged. Jesus the Christ upsets the status quo and creates a new story and new ways of being. We shall refuse then to get carried away with the frills of the Christmas story and live through the year ahead inspired by the Christ way of righteousness, peace, and love.

A blessed 2023 to all.

Fr Sean Major-Campbell is an Anglican priest and advocate for human rights. seanmajorcampbell@yahoo.com