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 The miracle and meaning of the Incarnation can be
so difficult to grasp that we can give up and start to view
Christmas in ways that leave us impoverished and unimpressed with
the real story. Even in the church our songs and reflections about
Christmas can fail to leave people gasping in amazement or humbled
in awe that God would come to dwell among us.
Sometimes we sentimentalize Christmas
Sentimentalism is focusing on the sights, sounds, and smells of
Christmas that give us good feelings. Dazzling decorations, fresh
baked sugar cookies, poinsettias, family get-togethers, gift
shopping, twinkling lights, Christmas carols, cards from friends,
tree-cutting expeditions, wrapping presents.
Of course, all these Christmas traditions are an expression of
common grace, for which we can joyfully thank God. But man-made
traditions aren’t the whole story, or even the main story of
Christmas, and they fail to solve our deepest problems or fulfill
our deepest needs.
Sometimes we sanitize Christmas
We sanitize Christmas when we only present a picture-perfect,
storybook rendition of what took place in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.
The straw in the manger is fresh and clean. There’s no umbilical
cord to cut and no blood. It’s a “silent night.” The surroundings
are strangely free from the pungent odor of manure. Joseph and Mary
are calm, cool, and collected. Everyone gets a good night’s sleep.
There’s no controversy or gossip surrounding the birth.
It’s a pleasant, appealing way to think about Christmas, but
obscures the foulness, uncertainty, and sin that Jesus was born
into. We forget that rather than coming for the put-together,
well-to-do, and self-sufficient, Jesus identified with the rejected,
the slandered, the helpless, and the poor.
Sometimes we spiritualize Christmas
Spiritualizing Christmas is ignoring Christmas as earth-shattering
history and using it simply to promote general virtues like
brotherhood, peace, joy, generosity, and love. And tolerance, of
course.
Again, it’s evidence of God’s common grace and a reason to give
thanks that our culture sets aside a time of year, however
commercialized it might be, to celebrate and commend loving your
neighbor.
But the fruit of Christmas is impossible to achieve or sustain apart
from the root.
We understand what love is by looking not to
ourselves and our good deeds, but by considering Jesus, who came
into the world to lay down his life for us (1 John 3:16). Preaching
or singing about peace without recognizing our need for the Prince
of Peace is a shallow peace indeed. By this
time, most of us have already made our choices about what Christmas
means to us and how we’re going to present it to others. But
Christmas comes every year. And it’s not too early to start thinking
about next year.
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More importantly, the glory of God becoming man was
never meant to be marginalized to a few weeks. It means something
cataclysmic every day.
• Jesus, the eternal Son of God who before time was worshiped by
countless angels, set aside his glory and entered the world through
the birth canal of a young woman he had created.
• He came not into a 21st century environment with trained doctors,
sterilized instruments and fetal monitors, but into a 1st century
cave filled with flies, animal excrement, and filth.
• The fullness of deity took up residence in the body of a baby
gasping for its first breath.
• The one who spoke the universe into existence lay silent, unable
to utter a word.
• He came by choice and with the sole intention of redeeming a
fallen and rebellious race through his perfect obedience,
substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection.
If we have the privilege of leading others in corporate worship at
Christmas, let’s be sure to help them understand why nothing is more
wonderful about Christmas than Christ himself.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born
of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the
law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his
glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and
truth. (Jn. 1:14)
O come, let us adore him!
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