In my last blog I talked about the aspects of Thanksgiving, and how we rush to get past it to get to X-mas. Well Christmas time is here, and this season tends to have the same kind of characteristics each year:
1. Traffic
2. Masses of people shopping for the perfect Christmas gift
3. Kindness in select moments (due to the seasons magic)
4. Rudeness during the same season (from people we assume to be Grinches)
Lights, trees, presents, tinsel, stockings, lots of sugar cookies, candy, chocolate are the fuel for the Christmas season. All of these things I love and can't wait to participate in, but as a believer I tend to step back and wonder if we have missed the point. Or rather we have combined the reason for the season (please excuse this horrible phrase--reminds me of the seatbelt slogan in my area: Arrive alive!) with the secular madness of Christmas. There are some interesting facts about Christmas that I knew but the more I thought about it made me appreciate more of what Christmas truly represents.
1. Jesus' birthday wasn't necessarily on Dec. 25th
Sorry if I have ruined Christmas for you (by the way Santa isn't real either), but Jesus probably wasn't born in Dec. Schlars have debated this but newer scholarship has shown that he more than likely was born in the end of March or the first week in April. This comes from the fact that th shepherds would not have been abiding in the field with their sheep out during the coldest part of the year. They mainly kept the sheep in from winter to the beginning of Spring. Also Mary traveled great distances (Matthew) in the coldest part of the year. Now by far this isn't impossible, but unlikely. Plus December 25th was originally a pagan holiday. It was a festival celebrating the longer length of daylight which was shorten from the Winter Solastice (which was one of the shortest daylight days of the year). The Catholic Church through some of the early church father's like Hippolytus and Chrystostm, both around the time of the 4th Century, decided to begin celebrating Jesus' birth on this day as they believed it to be. Again it doesn't say that it is impossible, but He more than likely wasnt.
2. The early church did not celebrate Christ birth
No where in Acts do we see a celebration with lights, trees or even a food festival (they were pretty good at throwing big food parties)! The early church did not celebrate Jesus' birth. We have no written record, no festival laid out. Why? Well the early church wasn't concerned with his birth but rather His death and ressurrection. If the birth would have meant something important to the early church they would have recorded it. Even Jesus didn't mention it. Yet within the first 4 chapters of Acts (Acts 2:24, 32; 3:15; 4:10) four times Jesus' death and ressurrection was mentioned to the masses of people. Not that His birth wasn't important but His death and resurrrection was the central focus of the early church, Paul, and the church today.
3. The Christmas story comes mainly from Matthew, Luke.
The Christmas story is a combination of Matthew story (which follows the model of Jesus being the "new Moses"--baby being taken to Egypt, then fleeing Egypt..etc) and Luke's story to Theolphilus.
Often the Christmas story seems like 1 fluid story, but in reality it is the combination of Matthew and Luke stories together. Example: Luke has no record of Magi, Matthew does. Mark, nor John have any birth narratives in their books. Now they were writing to different communities, and Mark and John not having them doesn't negate Jesus' birth, but just making sure that we understand where the stories come from.
Okay so now in some eyes they would say that I have ruined Christmas. This is not my intention. I never said that we as Christians should NOT celebrate Christmas. What I wanted to do was make sure you understood that we just take all of this holiday information and believe that it must be true. Why should we celebrate how great God is on ONE day?? (not Sunday either) Christmas represents a view of the church, not necessarily a biblical view. For me Christmas seems to symbolize something that we should be doing year round. I think that is why it is so hard to see people being nice, or having an extra pep in their step, or churches flooded once a year. Christmas' meaning is celebrating Christ, as Lord and Savior.....this done by his people living, acting like him YEAR ROUND. Its that kind reminder that "Hey your living for me. You want to celebrate me, then live like it everyday of your life".
I just dont want people to get a distorted unbiblical picture of Christmas, you need to know why these things are in place in our soceity. They are not as religious as some politicans and religious activists want.
Scripture is clear, we celebrate and glorify God daily (or we should) as his people. Christmas symbolizes family, both Christian and physical. Celebrating His greatness and holiness with family members, and sharing the message of the gospel to all we come encountered with. That's the reason to be jolly, not cause of snowmen, and overweight, 60 year old men in red track suits, but because of the glorious death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I hope that you have a Merry Christmas, and a wonderful New Year.
Be Blessed
