A mainstay of any nativity play is the ‘little donkey’ which carried the heavily pregnant Mary to Bethlehem from Nazareth. It’s even had a Christmas carol written after it which is sung every year, that’s how significant this little donkey is to the Christmas story.

Except there’s absolutely no mention of a donkey in the gospel accounts.
None. Zip. Nada.

So what?
It may seem like an unimportant detail to us that a donkey has found its way into the story, but the implications of this are significant.

To us in our 21C mindset a donkey isn’t considered an important animal, and not one of the ‘top trumps’ of the animal kingdom. The donkey is considered a humble beast and synonymous with stubbornness and stupidity.
But 2,000+ years ago the reverse was true. The donkey was a ‘royal’ animal, ridden by kings and dignitaries. A king travelling with peaceful intentions would ride a donkey and one intent on war would ride a horse. Both creatures were seen as important animals.
When Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for criticising him for healing a man on the Sabbath, his retort refers to rescuing a donkey out of a pit. Jesus’ observation is that they value the donkey more than the crippled man, as a donkey had financial value. He was highlighting that they had conveniently applied Mosaic law in relation to donkeys in pits because it suited their wallets to do so, whereas a helpless crippled beggar offered them no financial incentive. Perhaps the greatest tribute to the donkey is Jesus riding into Jerusalem in his ‘triumphal entry’ on one as the Prince of Peace and the son of David, Israel’s all-time favourite king. The image of the donkey was not lost on the crowds!

So it’s highly unlikely that Mary rode a donkey to Bethlehem, even though she was pregnant. Joseph was a carpenter and wouldn’t earn a lot of money as Nazareth wasn’t exactly a bustling hub of commerce – quite the opposite. He and Mary were ‘betrothed’ which meant any money he was earning was to prove to his father-in-law-to-be that he could pay the ‘bride price’ for Mary. It’s unlikely he had spare cash for expensive donkeys. In Luke’s gospel, an animal which is mentioned both in the gospels and in a Christmas song is the turtle dove. A pair of these was offered for sacrifice at Jesus’ presentation at the temple in Jerusalem “according to what is said in the law” (Luke 2:22-24). These animals were reserved in sacrifices for very poor people who couldn’t afford a calf, a lamb or a goat. To offer a turtle dove meant you were the poorest of the poor.

So although it may not seem significant, adding a donkey changes an important dynamic of the Christmas story; that Jesus was born into a humble and poor family who could barely scratch together money for a sacrifice. The God of the universe – the Logos – humbled Himself to become the lowest of the low. He not only associated with humanity in the broadest sense, He associated with the ‘least’ of humanity.
For us the donkey may still create that association, but to others around the world even today this would not be the case.

This Advent as you read the stories of Jesus’ birth again may you see the real details of the story and what they teach us about the Logos taking on ‘skin and fat’ (Greek – sarx).
May we be challenged to examine centuries of tradition so that we don’t lose the truth in tradition and miss the important things.
May you know that Jesus came to show us – in person – that God associates closely with the poor and chose to become ‘one of the least of these my brothers’ (Matt 25:40&45).