Gotta get my two cents in at Christmas! Hope you don’t mind.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the paradox in the way we commemorate our Savior’s birth today. Most of us have forgotten that the nativity has been mixed with the pagan celebrations surrounding the winter equinox for centuries. The medieval popes actively encouraged their missionaries to the animistic tribes of northern Europe to superimpose Christian feasts on pagan celebrations to make the gospel culturally relevant. In the last hundred years or so, the retail industry got a hold of it so now we find ourselves struggling with a holiday that combines gift-giving (and overdoing it) with Christmas trees and a Santa Claus who rewards good behavior and punishes naughtiness.
None of which is remotely connected to the birth of Christ, except perhaps that we celebrate light coming into the darkness and the worship of the Messiah by giving gifts.
The real Christmas story, however, can only be understood and celebrated with eyes of faith.
It is the story of God leaving His divinity behind and becoming one of us humans in the form of a helpless baby born to an unassuming couple from a town of ill repute. If that wasn’t enough, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was born in the filthy stable of an overcrowded inn and spent his first hours on earth lying in a food trough. No palace, no fireworks, no guard of honor, no bassinet with silk sheets. And His first visitors were not dignitaries but shepherds – outcasts from Jewish society – to whom the Messiah’s birth was revealed by angels.
Dignitaries and scholars would not have believed that Jesus was the Messiah – they were (and still are) expecting the revelation of a political figure who would come with military might to set God’s people free from Roman occupation and deal with injustice once and for all. Not a baby in a food trough in a stable born to parents from Nazareth from where no good could ever come.
His visitors were shepherds and stargazers from the East – people who were humble enough to believe at face value and who were thirsty enough for truth to travel far and see for themselves. In other words – people who saw the birth of Jesus that took place under the radar with eyes of faith – faith that is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1 ESV).
Christ the Savior’s inobtrusive birth immediately came under attack. Satan unleashed his fury because he knew what this baby would grow up to be and do to him. A hellish massacre was perpetrated upon the baby boys of Bethlehem and the little family had to flee to Egypt until it was safe to return.
The Savior’s ministry has been under attack ever since. And once His work was finished and he re-grasped His divinity as the Risen Christ, His body on earth came under attack and has been ever since its humble beginnings in the streets of Jerusalem.
Because of Satan’s hatred, the celebration of Jesus’ birth – the monumental reality of God becoming man – has been under attack, too. It’s been mixed with pagan tradition, and its message has been skewed and overshouted with commercialism and a vague “Christmas spirit.”
When the Savior was born, the light came into the world, and the world could not grasp (understand or overcome) it (see John 1:5). The Savior completed His mission and disarmed the powers of darkness without Satan being able to stop Him. And the Church has been at the Great Commission for nearly two thousand years without the Enemy being able to stop the gospel. despite constant persecution, attacks on unity, and false teachings.
We can only understand that with eyes of faith, just as we can only grasp the birth of Christ, His ministry, His triumph on the cross, His resurrection, and His work to gather for Himself a people of HIs own possession from every tribe and nation with eyes of faith.
Each year it seems like Christmas is getting more commercialized, frantic, and obscure in its message. And so each year Christians have to fight harder to keep our celebration of Jesus’ birth free from worldly ways and practices so we can keep embracing it and rejoicing in it with eyes of faith.
How are you seeing the birth of Christ this year? My prayer is that you find a little time to be still and look back at one of the greatest events in history with eyes of faith so you can see God’s glory shine through the humble birth of His Son and understand how it was an act of war against Satan as you remember the bloodstained boots and swords of Roman soldiers as they murdered thousands in an effort to prevent God from becoming man.
And then rejoice! The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.