Little Donkey?

Slightly early, but as people start planning their nativities and school christmas pagents, can I highlight a popular mistake in our culture.

Little donkey, little donkey

on the dusty road

Got to keep on plodding onwards

with your precious load

Been a long time, little donkey,

through the winter’s night

Don’t give up now, little donkey,

Bethlehem’s in sight

Ring out those bells tonight

Bethlehem, Bethlehem

Follow that star tonight

Bethlehem, Bethlehem

Little donkey, little donkey

Had a heavy day Little donkey, carry Mary.

HERESY! HERESY! HERESY! HERESY! HERESY! HERESY! HERESY! HERESY! HERESY!
Little Donkey
Alternatively buy it if you disagree with me, so badly.
The existence of a donkey carrying Mary to Bethlehem is about as close to the Christmas story as naming Wensceslas as one of the wise men who visited the crib, or claiming that Jesus was born on December 25th. She was a pedestrian not a rider.

Having made clear that there was no Donkey, where does the myth come from?
Quite simply, the story of a donkey is a myth. It was part of one of the pseudo gospels, Pseudo-Matthew, basically a jolly good read based on the biblical story, written in the 9th century, not an insight into the life of Jesus by someone around at the time. Incidentally one of the same gospels which Dan Brown refers to in The Da Vinci Code. These are fictional and rejected by the church as wrong and misleading, basically just myth.

As Dan Brown seems so popular, he posits the arguement that because the church tried to destroy the pseudo gospels, the church had something to hide, that they were conspiratorially hiding the truth. Of course I prefer to think that they are, like Mr Browns book, just good fiction. These stories of couse need some inspiration, so where could they come from?

Isiah 1 verse 3.
"An Ox know's its master and a donkey knows where its owner feeds it, but the people of Israel don't know me, my people don't understand".
This prophesy is easily stolen to interpret into a part of the nativity, in the way that it popularises the animal's role in contrast to the others, like Herod, around the birth of Jesus to embellish the harshness of Jesus' birthplace and his humble entry into the world. His greatness as lord of the earth, animal and human, is also emphasised symbolically. Therefore the Donkey is included as a narrative aid to the nativity.

Zechariah 9 verse 9.
"Rejoice greatly people of Jerusalem, shout for joy people of Jerusalem. Your king is coming to you, he does what is right and he saves. He is gentle and riding on a donkey"
This verse highlights the role of the donkey as contrasting the run up to the birth of Jesus, to the run up to his death through prophetic similarity. (Eg. in Mark 11 verse 7) This would be successful and quite profound if it were correct, however it isn't.

Thinking of Donkeys and Christmas, can I refer back to Numbers 22 verses 21 to 30.
the story of Baalam.
"21And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.
22And God's anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the LORD stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.
23And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.
24But the angel of the LORD stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side.
25And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall: and he smote her again.
26And the angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.
27And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.
28And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?
29And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.
30And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? and he said, Nay." (He did not suddenly talk like a horse, but merely agreed that his donkey did not wish him to come to harm, and what a silly man he had been)

Are we too like Baalam, are we not following the word of God to what he desires?
Are we too busy and self conscious to see God's message clearly before us?
Do we need to look at God's message again and ignore our agendas, or else we may come to harm?
Especially around this Christmas which is steeped in tradition including origins from Christian, Roman, Celtic, Orthodox, Jewish history as well as current political and social fashions, should we re-examine what we do and why we do it ,so that this christmas we celebrate the Christian origin of the festival and not get too bogged down in other pointless ceremony.

So, spare the poor embarassed child dressed in grey tights and cardboard face mask and let pedestrian Mary walk alone with Joseph to Jerusalem. and get our message clear this Advent and Christmas.