Jesus was God, born as a human being. But that means more than just he was biologically a human, that he had human DNA. He was fully human – he was part of human society, part of a human family. For Matthew the key aspect of Jesus being human was that he had a place in the history of the Israelite people, that his origins could be traced back to King David and even further, to the beginning of human history, as expressed in Genesis. One of our readings from Christmas Day tells that story. (Mt 1:1-25)
For Luke, writing for his Romanized gentile audience, that history had no relevance – just as in America people might be interested if you can trace your ancestry back to the Mayflower, but no one else cares. For Luke something else is key (Lk 2:41-52) – Jesus is fully part of a human family, with all the connections that brings: not just mother and father but aunts, uncles, cousins, many of whom are directly referenced in his nativity stories.
The Church, by choosing to follow the Feast of Christmas with the Feast of the Holy Family, follows Luke’s model. I always like the recognition that no sooner have we absorbed the fact that God came among us, we are reminded that this means he was part of a family, and a family not so very different from our own. It was a family with parents who wanted the best for their son, and like any mother and father were concerned for his safety and wellbeing, and not fully convinced he should be taking decisions entirely into his own hands at an early age. There were the familiar tensions between autonomy and “why the heck didn’t you tell us what you were up to”.
Jesus is not some icon living in a world that we can only observe or approach at a distance. He is a human being, exactly like us, linked to his family, both his immediate family and his extended family. Only if we accept that complete humanity can we be linked to him, to share the closeness of people who love each other, whether that sharing is as between parents and children, or a shared life of any type between two individuals.
If we can make Jesus part of our family, he has already made us part of his family.