I can’t tell you how long I have been listening to the complaints. The complaints we as Christians have about people taking Christ out of Christmas or calling our celebration the Holiday Season.
I have often told my congregation that we have let the merchants hijack our holiday. In fact, for many retailers, Christmas is the only reason many have a profitable year. And as Christians, many of us make that bottom line possible, sometimes spending money that we don’t have.
When you look at our excesses during the celebration, are they contrary to what God did when Jesus came to earth?
In the Bible’s Matthew and Luke, we find the angel of God visiting a poor girl. A poor girl that in the culture of the Bible was on the bottom of the social and economic order of that day.
The angel told this young girl that she would become pregnant. Pregnant even though she was not married. Pregnant even though there were no systems in place to taking care of a single mother and her child. A pregnancy if the religious leaders found out about could have resulted in Mary being put to death.
Mary conceived and she and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem.
Luke 2:5, the common English version reads, “Mary was promised to Joseph in marriage and who was pregnant,” the NIV reads. “Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph and was expecting a child,” the King James version reads.
Joseph went to Bethlehem “with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child,” espoused meaning that she was not married.
God had put Mary in a bad situation and in doing so put God’s son in a difficult situation. A situation that should have Christians celebrating nothing other than the fact that God came to be with us. The story, however, shows us even more.
When they got to Bethlehem, God in human flesh was born in the lowest conditions. Born without the assistance of a mid-wife. Placed in a long open box or trough for horses or cattle to eat from. There was no blanket to wrap our Savior in. Mary had to wrap her child in rags.
Are we missing something in the story focusing so much on stuff? God denied God’s son so much. Am I the only one who feels that Christmas should be more about denying self? For this child is the one who would die on the cross. And in the words of that great hymn of the Church, should we be denying ourselves and following after this child?
The story of Christmas even tells us more about where God’s heart is. The political and religious leaders were not there to welcome Jesus. God’s angels were sent to lowly shepherds to proclaim the news the prophet had predicted that the Saviour had come. Shepherds who provided the needs of the community. Sheep provided clothing, food, and medicine.
Yet because they had to sleep with the sheep, shepherds were looked down upon by many in society. They were, however, the ones chosen to be the first ones to meet Jesus.
So, on this Christmas, visit the living Nativity scenes, just remember those people get to go home. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, read the story like you have never read the story before. And then let God speak to your spirit to what Christmas is about.
We as Christians should embrace the story for what it is, not a story that we have sanitized. Jesus would be the real reason for the season. We would not get caught up in the madness.
And maybe those who do not know Him would come truly to know Him and realize what Christmas is all about.
God with us!
Merry Christmas.
(The Rev. Leonard Edloe is pastor of New Hope Fellowship Church in Hartfield. His email address is leonard.edloe@gmail.com.)
