Why Christmas?

   As an intellectual, I’ve found myself questioning Christmas for the last couple of years.  Unlike most grinches, I do not believe that the value of Christmas is diminished by its commercialization.  My lack of interest in Christmas had its general roots in the importance of Christmas to the Christian faith.  Yes, I understand that without Christmas the Cross would be impossible.  But the same argument could be made about many other things.  We don’t celebrate every time Jesus got better from pneumonia or avoided getting run over by a mule.  Both of which would have made the Cross impossible. 

  I have changed my mind.  Christmas is very important, maybe as important conceptually as Easter.  My reason for this stems from the fact that I no longer believe that there is a “central miracle” in Christianity.  There are two, in fact.  The second “central miracle” is the incarnation of Christ into flesh.  There are three reasons that I think the incarnation is important.

1.  God showed he meant business

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  John 1:14 (NIV)

  The literary beauty of the Bible is in its story. Even though the Bible was written over thousands of years, its authors maintained its central focus on the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ.  Peter and Paul LaLonde claim that the Old Testament has over 60 prophecies about Christ and over 300 references to his coming.  Most good novels don’t have that many references to the climax. 

  Indeed, the whole of the Old Testament simply does not make sense without Jesus.  Even Jews believe that the Old Testament hasn’t been completed yet—they claim, for the most part, that the Messiah is still to come.  They believe that there is a “the rest of the story” still to come. 

  It’s here that we find the “real” business of God.  C.S. Lewis said, “The (Christian) ‘doctrines’ are translations into our concepts and ideas of that which God has already expressed in language more adequate, namely the actual incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.”  Indeed, it is the translation of the Old Testament into the actual being of Christ.  For Christ was the “Word [that] became flesh”, that is the perfect translation of doctrine into flesh.  Which is the only way that humanity could understand the Word. 

 

2.  It’s a promise…a kept promise

“‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.”  Jeremiah 23:5 (NIV)

  One of my favorite songs that we sing every Christmas is “O come, O come Emmanuel.”  The song takes the perspective of the Jews during the Jewish exile and describes the anguish felt at that time by the Jewish people.  Analogous to the Gospel music sung by slaves in the South before the emancipation.

   The song’s theme is from Isaiah 7:14.

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (NIV)

    This prophecy is a promise that Israel would have a king who brought them perpetual peace.  Indeed, much of the psychological beauty of the Immanuel was that Israel would have peace and prosperity.  One might argue that the modern Christian conception of the eternal afterlife is semi-analogous to the Israeli concept of the Savior King.  Indeed, the savior was a symbol of the fulfillment of God’s contract with Abraham. 

  The promise was fulfilled.  As Simeon the Righteous said,

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
   you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
  which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
   and the glory of your people Israel.” (NIV)

    The symbol thus became universal—it was no longer merely a promise to Jews; but now a promise to alleviate the pain and bring all of mankind back from its “bondage.” 

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Hebrews 2:14-15 (NIV)

   The analogy holds at every level.  God’s promise was fulfilled in a king who brought “everlasting” peace (albeit in the afterlife) and which fulfilled the law so that all mankind might be saved.  The impact then for us is that we may know that God really will fulfill his promise to come back for us.  We have historical precedent!

3.  God became personable

“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh…” Romans 8:3 (KJV)

  Advertising executive Leo Burnett said, "Make it simple.  Make it memorable.  Make it inviting to look at." In an inexplicable, sense God made himself memorable and personable by “marketing” his love to us.  Think about it.  Before Christ came to earth and fulfilled the law, few people worshiped the Abrahamic God.  They saw Him specifically as the powerful sovereign God who destroyed everything in the way of the Jews. 

  Then we have a story that few could dislike.  (And in many ways if you think about it the Christmas story is so much more marketable to average consumers then say the story of Elisha cursing his mockers [they were mauled by bears].)  We have kings from far away places, we have animals, we have a young innocent mother and finally an adorable newborn baby—in an Incarnation that would capture the memory of history.   

 

Conclusion…

   It’s really amazing—the incarnation.  It was like God got down on his hands and knees and looked us in our eyes for the first time.  If you want real love, look deeply into His eyes.