| The meaning of Christmas |
| Tuesday 9th January 2007, 04:03 pm |
| Christmas is a celebration, but when its full meaning is considered it is a bitter-sweet celebration. The name is a contraction meaning "Christ's mass". It is embodying both the birth of Jesus and the celebration of his crucifixion as remembered in the Eucharist or as we call it Communion or the Lord’s Supper. Christmas therefore is a sweet celebration because we rejoice in the wonderful gift God gave to the world in the person of baby Jesus, the Christ, but it is also tinged with a bitter tang because we know that the adult Jesus, the Christ, came to die for sinners to accomplish the work God his father sent him to earth to do, “save people from their sins”. 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.1 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.2 Had Jesus not suffered death on the cross and raised from the dead, his birth would be no more worthy of remembrance than that of any other little Jewish boy born to any other mother in Bethlehem about 2000 years ago. But his birth, life, death and resurrection were so significant that we divide time into two eras, the years before Christ’s birth [BC] and the years after [AD]. Christmas has become a distant distortion of the first Christmas when shepherds came and worshipped a new born king in a stable. Then, Jesus was shut out because there was no room in a lodging house. Today he is shut out of his own birthday party because profits and presents have become more important than his presence. It’s sad really when the one who should be the honoured guest is forgotten and replaced by a figure that distracts our attention away from the central person and the message of God’s salvation that he brought to the people of the world. The “Ho, ho, ho!” of the jolly fat fellow in red is more compatible with the careless lifestyle than the “Woe, woe, woe!” of the Christ who, knowing the results of life lived apart from God, came to give us the greatest gift, peace through the blood of his cross. The Son of God became the Son of Man
so the children of men could become the children of God. Back then many missed the Saviour’s birth because they were following the distractions of their day. Some shepherds and wise men however did take time to seek him and worship him. Wise men, and women, still take time to seek and worship him.
May you be blessed in his presence as you seek him this Christmas. Evan Squires Bible references: 1 - The Gospel of John Chapter 3 2 - The Prophecy of Isaiah Chapter 53 |
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