Advent: 23 December 2022
Good morning,
Behind our window today is the letter X. X is for… not very much really. X-rays of ancient wood some think come from the actual manger? Xylophone version of Joy to the World? But X is also for Xmas. Now while this may seem a shorthand for Christmas for people too busy to write the word out in full, it is actually an abbreviation which reveals the Greek origin of the word Christ. For Christ is the English version of the Greek Χριστός, which transliterated is Christos. And as you can see, the first letter of that word in Greek, chi, looks very like our X. Hence Xmas.
Χριστός is the Greek word for anointed one or Messiah, which I explored in the Advent Calendar for 3 December under David. But this year, in thinking about Jesus as the Messiah, I can’t help but remember going to the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Bavaria, southern Germany in August. Every ten years this village with a population of around 5000 puts on a five-hour long drama depicting the events of what Christians call Holy Week, from Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey, clearing the Temple of money-changers, being anointed by a woman, the betrayal of Judas, the fear of religious leaders Caiaphas and Annas, the cruelties of Herod and Pilate, the last supper, arrest, trial, scourging and crucifixion – and also the resurrection of Jesus. This five hour play (with a break for dinner back at our hotel in the middle) features hundreds of villagers on stage, all actors being amateur with their own professions and jobs. There is beautiful music played by an orchestra of villagers, and sung by a choir of villagers. There are living pictures interspersed throughout the action depicting Old Testament scenes which have a bearing on Jesus’ passion. It is performed in German, but we were given an English translation in a book.
The Oberammergau Passion Play has been performed almost every ten years since 1634, and is now in a purpose-built theatre, partly open to the sky, with around 100 performances each year it is put on. People come from all over the world to experience it. On the night we were there, the weather closed in, and as the story moved towards the crucifixion of Jesus, real lightning flashed overhead and thunder rolled around the heavens. The most moving part for me was the very end, when the angel assures Mary Magdalene that Jesus is risen, saying “Believe in the light so that you may become children of light.” And then Mary Magdalene’s expression changes from fear to joy, from despair to hope. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that villager-actress’s face portraying the deepest hope that Christians have in the Messiah, that he who came as a newborn child in Bethlehem is risen from the dead.
Here is an image I captured of the concluding moments, with Mary Magdalene to the left of the cross, Mary the mother of Jesus to the right, and disciples bearing the light.
Yours,
Donald.