The Christ of Christmas
“The Word became flesh and blood, and
moved into the neighborhood.” (John 1:14)
Too many
times, people want to pull Christ out of Christmas. We need to remember that Christ is Christmas
and Christmas is Christ. It’s not a
neutral holiday like “Labor Day.” It’s an intentional holiday to celebrate God
coming into the world. When we try to pull Christ out of Christmas, we reveal
our ignorance as people and as a nation.
But maybe more importantly, we reveal how powerful and convicting Christ
is to people who want to get rid of Him.
The reason is, Christ confronts us with a decision as Jesus knew the
contention He brought and it’s still true today. Truthfully, the baby in the
manger can make people a little too uncomfortable.
In the midst of a world that has
attempted in many ways to take Christ out, we can be grateful that He came
into it. Because He
did, He changed everything around us. John 1:14
says, “The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.” (The Message) God in heaven became a human being. He came into our world to change our
circumstances. It is a historical fact. We mark the world’s calendars by his
arrival. Every check you write or
anytime you write the date we are reminded that Christ came into the world 2014
years ago. If we celebrate the birthday
of other people, we certainly need to mark that of the One who changed our
world. There are 3 mysteries that we
will never fully grasp as much as we try.
They are the “Trinity,” “Eternity,” and the “Incarnation.” The incarnation has to do with how God became
a human being. In Ephesians, Paul
writes, “Remember that at that time you
were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and
foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the
world.” Ephesians 2:12
NIV) This shows our condition prior
to Christ coming into the world. But it also
shows us prior to knowing Christ. What
an ominous thought of how different our world was before Christ came but how
different it is because He did come.
In 1946, the Christmas Classic, It’s A
Wonderful Life, was released.
In the movie, George Bailey had a gift that he wasn’t sure he wanted.. His gift
was the gift of life. And his life had
seemingly fallen apart all around him. He
just knew he was going to lose his business, his livelihood. He faced prison
for something he hadn’t done. And as a
result of all this… his family faced shame and poverty. In desperation, he pleads
with his arch-enemy (Mr. Potter) for a loan on his life insurance. Potter
gleefully observes “George, you’re worth more dead than alive!” And thus,
George Bailey decides that his only solution is to throw himself off the bridge
into the frigid waters below and at least supply his family with the money from
his life insurance. But God steps in and
an angel (Clarence
Oddbody…Angel Second Class) is sent to earth to stop George Bailey
before he can take his life. But how do you convince a man that the gift he
wants to
grant George
Bailey’s wish and show him what life would’ve been like if he’d never been
born. So, as George tries to get back to his home, he finds that… • the town he’d worked so hard to build up and protect had become a den
of iniquity and evil
• the pharmacist – who George saved
from a tragic mistake – has become the town drunk
• his brother Harry whom he’d saved from falling thru the ice, dies because George wasn’t there to save him and the hundreds of men died that Harry would have saved during the war, because Harry wasn’t there to save them.
• and the beautiful woman he’d married and had had such wonderful children with ended up becoming a wretched, dejected and lonely spinster.
• his brother Harry whom he’d saved from falling thru the ice, dies because George wasn’t there to save him and the hundreds of men died that Harry would have saved during the war, because Harry wasn’t there to save them.
• and the beautiful woman he’d married and had had such wonderful children with ended up becoming a wretched, dejected and lonely spinster.
George Bailey finally understood how
wonderful his life had been because he was allowed to see how much would have
been lost if he had never been born.
That - which he’d been tempted to throw away.
He came to realize was too valuable to lose.
In his book, What If Christ Had Never
Been Born, Dr. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe share what the world would be
like if Christ had not come shares about countless places that Christ has
affected our world. All
the founders of modern science were Christians including Newton , Boyle, Pasteur, Pascal. Free enterprise and work ethic were
established on the laws of the 10
commandments. Art, music and literature
had it’s champions in Christians such as Shakespeare, Dickens, Milton, Bach and
Handel who wrote the famous
“Hallelujah Chorus. But each of them remind us that if you
take Christ away, you take away a great deal of our world. Sadly, people like and benefit from all the
blessings Christ brought when He came into the world. If you take Christ out of Christmas, you have
to get rid of some of our greatest societal institutions
•Take
Christ out of Christmas and you have to get rid of the Christ centered
churches: Bill Hybels has said, “As the churches go, so
goes our nation.”
•If
you take Christ out of Christmas, you have to get rid of the world changing organizations: Hospitals and orphanages were started
by the
church. Get rid of Christ and
you get rid of the hospitals and orphanages…how many want that?)
•Finally,
take Christmas out of Christmas and you have to get rid of the United State
of America as we know it: The United States is the greatest and
most prosperous nation in the history of the world. There is a reason that no other nation can
replicate what our country has become…that is because they don’t want anything. But they want to get rid of the one who
brought. Proverbs 14:34 says,
“Righteousness exalts a nation…but sin is a disgrace.”
Get rid of the Christ of Christmas and
you get rid of all of these areas. It’s a good reason to always keep “Christ” in
your “Christmas.” Good things happen
when you do.
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1) Why do many people take Christ out of
Christmas?
2) What can you do to make sure He is part of
your Christmas?
Consider reading the Word today:
Copyright
2014- Terry Risser
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