Why We'll Always Celebrate Christmas!
The Mind of Christmas
Saturday, December 6, 2003
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, as I have invested an entire week in examining John’s record of Jesus’ coming into the world, use that time to glorify yourself! May this Scripture stay in my memory so that I will recall the greatness of Jesus moment to moment. Empower me by Your Holy Spirit that I may glean the truth of this passage for myself, and to share it with others. Impart to me the desire to share this Good News with each person I meet through this season of Christmas in some way—whether through word, or action, or the silent action of intercessory prayer. I pray that You will draw me closer to You that I may live boldly in Jesus’ name all the time. This I pray, in His name. Amen.
Bible Verses
John 1:1-14
1In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. 4Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. 5The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. 6God sent John the Baptist 7to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8John himself was not the light; he was only a witness to the light. 9The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world. 10But although the world was made through him, the world didn’t recognize him when he came. 11Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. 12But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan—this rebirth comes from God. 14So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. (grace and truth) And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.
The Word Became Human....
Perhaps no greater challenge faces the human mind than to accept that the infinite God of the universe actually humbled Himself to the point of becoming one of us. As Billy Graham once put it, the idea of God becoming human, would be like a human being agreeing to become an ant, for the sake of the ants! The idea seems absurd on the face of it. For that reason the Jews, God’s chosen people, rejected the concept. The idea that Jesus, a man who was crucified, could be the Messiah, was impossible for a Jew to imagine, since the Mosaic Law says that any man who is hung on a tree is cursed. Yes, Jesus WAS cursed. He took the curse of every human being onto Himself on the cross, so while the Jews find Jesus a stumbling block, He is nevertheless the Messiah, the Son of God, and God become human. The Greeks of Jesus’ day thought the idea of God becoming a human being “foolishness.” As the Apostle Paul pointed out to the Corinthian Christians, the message of Jesus is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. Again, we must admit that the idea of God becoming human—for the sake of the humans, does indeed, seem absurd. Why? Why would God do such a thing? And doesn’t such a thing contradict the very words of Scripture? After all, the bible teaches that God cannot become man, or the son of a man, and yet Jesus did both! Can God contradict His own written word in order to become THE Word made flesh who lived among us (and still LIVES among us through the Holy Spirit)?
The answer to those questions is vital, because there have always been, are now and will always be (in this life) those who claim that Jesus was just a great man, or even a “god” with a small “g”, but surely not THE God of the universe. How do we answer these concerns about Jesus. We answer them with His own words, “The Father and I are one.” Some would say, “Yes, but Jesus also prayed to the Father to make us (humanity) one with them, even as they were one, so this is no proof that Jesus and God are one.” There is no end to the discussion (argumentation?) that goes on when we start down this path, but the reality is that when Jesus said, “The Father and I are one.” He was not making an analogy or using any other figure of speech. And it is true that Jesus wants each of us to be one with Him and the Father, but that will not in any sense mean that we have become God. Jesus already WAS one with God. Today’s Scripture makes that clear: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…” No amount of verbal gymnastics is able to change that truth. What about the claims that the Bible says God cannot become a man? Is it a contradiction of that statement that Jesus DID become a man, if He is God? Only in the strictest literal sense. Just as the Jews had difficulty and some found it impossible to accept that Jesus was the Messiah, because He had been crucified, it is in the Jews’ own writings that this is explained. In Isaiah 52:13-53:13, Isaiah describes for us a “suffering servant” who will die for the sins of the people. This is obviously Jesus! While folks may find a half a dozen verses in the entire bible that seem to contradict Jesus’ being able to come to the earth and become a human if He is, indeed, God, when examined in light of the totality of Scripture it is clear that it was not only possible for Jesus to be God AND man, it is, indeed, so!
This week’s theme has been focusing on the “mind” of Christmas. As followers of Jesus we are called by the Apostle Paul to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This is news to some followers of Jesus, even though they may have memorized the verse just stated! Some folks say, “You just have to take everything on faith,” as if to follow Jesus is to check our minds at the coatroom of life. Not at all! The Bible is not merely a book of faith. The history in it has been substantiated by modern archaeology. While we must at some point step out in faith in order to respond to Jesus’ invitation to follow Him as Savior and Lord, this is not just “whistling in the dark.” Our faith in Jesus is an informed trust. We don’t have to be gullible fools, as some of the Greeks contended in Jesus’ day, or ignorant of Scriptures as some of the Jews contended in Jesus’ day, in order to follow Him as Savior and Lord, in order to accept that Jesus truly is God in human form.
As we prepare for Christmas this year, as we celebrate Jesus’ birth, there is another danger of which we are all aware in the celebration: commercialism. It is possible for us to get caught up on the world’s celebration, not of the Savior’s birth, but of who can by the best present, or who can have the most, or fanciest decorations, or who can throw the biggest, best, wildest party. If we have the mind of Christmas, though, we will understand that good stewards of God’s creation celebrate in ways that honor Jesus. Does it really honor Jesus to be paying for everything we purchased for Christmas in April or May of the following year? Does it really honor Jesus to throw a party where the total focus is showing off our homes, or our material wealth? Does it really honor Jesus to fill our calendars so full during December that we fall exhausted into January, thanking God that we only celebrate Jesus’ birth once a year? We all know the answers to those questions. Christmas IS a most blessed season of the year, because Jesus is at the center of it—at least for those of us who bear His name, and THINK about who He is and all He has done, starting with the amazing reality of His birth as a HUMAN, in order to save humanity! Wow! Only God could think of something like that!
To view other studies from the Why We Celebrate Christmas series, click here.