Such places were scenes of noise and confusion. St. Mary of Bethlehem was shortened to Bethlehem and eventually to Bedlam. Sadly, He is unknown in the church. X is an abbreviation, and today He is the abbreviated Christ. Faced with the choice of enlarging our hearts to receive Him or scaling Him down to our size, we choose the latter.
X stands for all the sins of omission.
X stands for all our attempts to imprison Christ in our own ideas. The Pharisees tried to keep Him within man-made rules. The Zealots tried to confine Him to their political purposes. X is a cancellation mark, and today He is the cancelled Christ. Herod cancelled Him for political reasons.