A Christ-centered Christmas doesn’t just happen.
The wonder of Christmas and the greatest gift that was given to us is often
symbolized in the story of a farmer who heard his kitchen window rattling one
cold winter morning.
He went to the window and saw tiny sparrows who were attracted to his warm
house, attempting in vain to fly through the glass. The farmer went outside
and opened the door of his barn, hoping the birds would fly in and take
advantage of the shelter from the storm that it offered. No luck. So he spread
about some bread crumbs in front of the barn door and some just inside the
barn door. Still no bird flew into the barn. So he tried waving his arms about
in an effort to shoo the birds into the barn, but the man only succeeded in
scattering the birds. Discouraged, the farmer went back into his house and
peered out at the birds struggling in the storm.
“If I could only become one of them and lead them into the barn,” he thought
wistfully. Then it hit him! He realized that is exactly what God had done in
Jesus Christ! God sent us his son so he could lead us out of the storm of this
life and into the shelter God offers us and to live with him! That’s the
wonder of Christmas! It is, in fact, the very thing that many people either
refuse to believe about Christmas – as they have big meals and celebrate – or
what many others have forgotten.
Christmas can quickly and easily turn into a self-centered time of
getting for ourselves
– a time when the emphasis is on materialism, commercialism, parties and
over-indulgence. The Christmas season is supposed to be a time when
we celebrate the fact that God sent his son, Jesus, into our world – to give
himself to us and for us. Yet so like the children of Israel who had just
received the Ten Commandments from God, we quickly forget
‘the reason for the season’ and begin to fashion our own golden
calves to worship. So instead of celebrating the advent of the promised
messiah [deliverer], Christmas becomes a time of excess and greed.
Christmas and Easter are times when our hearts and minds are
challenged to consider God’s profound love for us
– but yet they are also times when we are tempted to trivialize, minimize and
overlook the real meaning of the season.
Jesus scattered the money changers who threatened to turn the worship of God
in the temple into religious commercialism. The service the money changers
offered was not the problem – they were helping pilgrims from other countries
by exchanging foreign currency into coins that could be used to pay the temple
tax. The problem was they exchanged that money at considerable cost to those
using their services, and so corrupted the worship of God into a commercial
venture.
Christmas is not a time to get. It is not a time to
try to have bigger and better light displays than our neighbors. It is not a
time for excess or self indulgence. It is not a time to turn our children into
thankless monsters who can think of nothing but more, more, more.
It takes intentional planning and direction. It means we will resist
the things that may easily focus the emphasis of the season on ourselves
rather than upon Christ. Christmas is all about Christ – it’s not about us.
Christmas presents us with the challenge of remembering the meaning of
Christmas and communicating that meaning to others while many around us are
engaged in one big chaotic orgy of spending, getting, grasping and indulging.
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Jesus’ birth is an opportunity for us to re-focus our lives away from the vanity, lust, greed, and rat-race of our world.
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Jesus’ birth is a wonderful way to direct our hearts and minds to the eternal, lasting values rather than the cheap and immediate.
Christmas reminds us that Jesus is the reason for the season.
Jesus is not a baby anymore, but wise men (and women) still seek him. Christmas reminds us of the mystery and majesty of Immanuel — God with us [Matthew 1:23]. We marvel and ponder at the profound truth that Jesus continued to be God while also becoming a baby. And not just any baby!
Even though Jesus is the Lord of all, The Prince of Peace, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, he was not born into a royal family in a castle with lots
of pomp and ceremony – but a baby born into a blue-collar family. The only
invited guests to this one-time event were some blue-collar workers – lowly
shepherds who were on duty that night tending their sheep.
God invites us to stop, slow down, ponder, and wonder at this time of the
year.
These are great truths we should consider more than once a year, but the
beauty of Christmas is that at least once a year we cannot ignore the fact
that God, in the person of Jesus, became one of us. He became a baby so that
the cradle would lead to the cross which would lead to the tomb, which would
become empty and remain so, for Christ is risen – and lives that we might
live!
RELATED:
- The Dark Side of Christmas (peterwitkowski.wordpress.com)
