A Legacy of Blessing: The Difficulty of Christmas
A pastor friend of mine noted that Christmas is difficult. When I asked what he meant, he responded, "How many ways can you tell the same story year after year?" While I understood his dilemma, I also thought that it is an open door to share more than the Christmas story – Jesus born in Bethlehem, the angels and shepherds…. It is an opportunity to be intentionally missional in proclaiming the Gospel.
There is no denying the commercialization of Christmas. In my neighborhood, one house went from a fully decorated graveyard complete with plastic tombstones, skeletons, and assorted creepy-crawlers for Halloween, to a full winter wonderland with decorated trees, reindeer, and a giant inflatable Santa that waves to you! Radio stations are playing "Christmas" music all day—music which really has nothing to do with the biblical Christmas message.
How do we deal with the difficulty of Christmas? Commercialization on the one hand, and the monotony (can I say that?) of sharing the same message year after year on the other? If our focus is only on the Bethlehem scene we will run into difficulties, as my pastor friend alluded to. When we expand the Christmas message back to Genesis 3 and the first promise of a Saviour to deal with our sin, we then see the Christmas story as God’s narrative to bring hope of restoration back to fallen humanity. A hope that not only deals with our sin but effectively pays the price to redeem us from the slave market of sin and restores us as sons and daughters to our heavenly father. The Christmas message is more than the birth of Jesus, for he was born in the shadow of the cross. The Christmas message begins with the character of God, who is loving, kind, and merciful. His desire is for all to repent and be restored to a relationship with him. As Peter tells us, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise (the second return) as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (Peter 3:9).
The Christmas story is seen throughout Scripture. It is seen in David’s Psalms, in which the shepherd protects the sheep (Psalm 23), and in Jesus' parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15). It is seen in the father’s reaction to his prodigal son, who returns home to become a servant yet is welcomed, embraced, and restored as a son (Luke 15). It is seen in Jesus' encounter with a woman at a well (John 4) and in the many healings, deliverances, and comforts for the hurting we see in the New Testament. Ultimately, the Christmas story finds its culmination in that great scene in eternity future, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!” (Rev. 7:9-10).
As we celebrate the Christmas story this year, may it be more than a one-off celebration, but a continuation of our ongoing Gospel witness, pointing people to both the manger and the cross so that the greatest gift of God’s Son is seen in a life transformed by the power of the Gospel.
Merry Christmas!
Rev. Bill Allan, AGC President