What would surprise Jesus about Christmas 2025?

What Would Surprise Jesus About Christmas 2025?

- Nicholas D Kristof

This is the latest in my occasional series of conversations about Christianity. Previously, I spoke with the Reverend Timothy Keller, president Jimmy Carter, evangelical writer Beth Moore, professor Elaine Pagels and others. Here I speak with Bart Ehrman, a prominent New Testament scholar at the University of North Carolina and the author or editor of more than 30 books. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

You have a new book coming out soon, Love Thy Stranger, arguing that Jesus taught a revolutionary message that transformed Western moral thinking. What was that message?

The heart of Jesus’ message is that loving “others” means caring not only for family and friends but even for strangers — whoever is in need, whether we know them or whether they are like us. This kind of altruism was not promoted — or even accepted — in the Greek and Roman worlds that Jesus came out of. But it is a view that completely transformed the thinking and ethical priorities of the Western world down till today.

I admire that message of Jesus about helping strangers, but did it really transform the moral conscience of the West? White evangelicals overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump, and he’s not helping strangers but deporting them and breaking up families.

That's right: A number of outspoken Christian leaders and Christian communities promote views that are quite contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Even so, his teachings continue to affect most people in the West, whether Christian or not. When a hurricane hits, many of us feel inclined to send money for disaster relief. Or we volunteer in soup kitchens to help people we don’t know. These practices are rooted in teachings of Jesus that became ethical norms once Christianity became the dominant religion of the West.