Page 63 - October 7 - Teresa Pirola

13
‘Baby Jesus in the Rubble’: Handle with Care
“ With Julie McCrossin AM, 10 January 2024
One morning in December 2023, I received a phone call from well-known Australian broadcaster Julie McCrossin AM. She was alarmed by what she was seeing on social media: Jesus the Jew being stripped of his Jewish identity and being turned into ‘Jesus the Palestinian’. We agreed to address the
issue through a jointly posted article. It ” was completed after Christmas Day, but its
posting on social media came in time for the Christmas season.
Historically, theologically and morally the nativity scene of ‘baby Jesus in the rubble’ must be handled with care. It can be a beautiful image speaking of God’s closeness to Palestinian children suffering in Gaza. Or it can become an antisemitic icon.
In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, where Christmas celebrations have been subdued due to the Hamas- Israel war, a baby Jesus figurine rests in a ‘crib’ of broken rubble as a symbol of solidarity with children in war-ravaged Gaza.
For Christians it is a deeply moving image, widely shared on social media, and in many ways it communicates the significance of the baby Jesus, the Christ-child, according to Christian understanding: God enters human history in the
63