Let us make sense of real Christmas | Sunday Observer

Let us make sense of real Christmas

22 December, 2019
Girolamo_da_Santacroce_-_The_Adoration_of_the_Three_Kings_-_Walters
Girolamo_da_Santacroce_-_The_Adoration_of_the_Three_Kings_-_Walters

Beyond the Christmas tree, beyond the bows and wrapping paper, beyond the sounds of Christmas songs and smells of cakes and liquor, beyond the armloads of gifts and the grim reality of credit card bills, beyond the red-suit clad Santa and tiny angels adorned with aluminium foil halos, have you ever wondered what Christmas was all about?

Far from the glamorous festivities that mark today’s holiday celebrations, the first Christmas proved the humblest of events. It is a story every Christian knows well. It is a unique story in history never to be repeated in the future but unfortunately, most of the Christians conveniently forget it by the first week of December each year.

It is not a glamorous story. But it is a glorious story. A thousand times, yes!

His story

The child Jesus was born for a purpose. And any narration of the Christmas story which fails to relate the infant’s divine purpose is, at best, incomplete.

When Jesus grew to adulthood he began to minister throughout the territory. He healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the hungry. And He taught the people in a way no one had ever taught before, as though He had all authority. The curious masses followed him in droves.

They begged him for another miracle, and another, and another. They brought their sick to Him, or called Him to come to them when the sick people were too ill to travel. They brought their grievances and their fears to Him. They brought their requests, and shouted acclamations when He satisfied them.

His teaching became a little too uncomfortable to the people, when He called them to love God with all their heart, when He challenged them to love and serve their neighbour, when He commanded them to submit to civil government, they turned from Him. In fact, they demanded His death.

And they got it. He was seized. He was falsely accused. He was taken before judge after judge. He was beaten beyond recognition. Finally, He was sentenced to crucifixion--the cruellest form of execution man has ever devised.

At last, He died. Three days after He was buried, Christ rose from the grave. The One who never sinned could not be held forever by the curse of sin, death.

Purpose

Why did God send His son to this cruel and hard world? He sent Jesus to us so that one day, He would grow up to become a very important part of history. His story (history) is one of truth, love, and hope. It brought salvation to all of us. Without Jesus, we would all die in our sins.

The Bible says that all have sinned. We do things that do not please God. From Adam and Eve, we have all inherited that sin. We need to have that sin removed. The only way is through Jesus. Jesus came so He could die on the cross for ALL of our sins. If we believe that Jesus died for our sins, we can ask Him to come into our hearts and forgive us. Then, we are clean and made whole.

True Christmas is about Life. A life of direction, purpose, joy, peace and a life of fellowship with Christ Himself.

If you want to be with Christ to enjoy the life he offered, you have to do two things. First, admit that you are a sinner and that you have done many wrong things in your life. Even if your list of sins seems short alongside someone else’s, a sin is a sin. Even one sin keeps you from being able to get to Christ on your own. Before you can step onto the bridge Christ made, you have to acknowledge that the gap between you and God is too great for you to cross on your own. You have to trust that the cross really will get you to meet Christ.

Christmas symbolizes that cross

Christmas is not people hurrying to get this or that gifts ‘something extra’ which is just right for those three kids. So much thought goes into the buying, the wrapping, and the timing of the gift.

The expectant hope, in the eye and face of parents, spouse, brother, sister or friend that this gift got and given would really please the other; hoping to make this a ‘perfect’ Christmas for everyone. Christmas of this nature is truly a disappointment, because the gift and the love behind the gift are not acknowledged and instead the gift is grasped as ‘mine.’

The Christ-Child came with open hands, grasping nothing, totally poor, vulnerable, and dependent, sharing the human condition in every way except sin. The real Christmas gift is Jesus, the intent, thought, love and the timing was right. In the fullness of time God thought of the total mankind, loved them so much that he sent his Son, in a way that He could reach deeply into the hearts of all people. Christmas is the moment of truth to contemplate the message he brought in.

So, what can we do?

For a start, Christians need to recover for themselves the rituals and symbols of Christmas. This festival celebrates the humanity of God. It challenges our selfishness and consumerism. God’s self-giving in Jesus is offered to all, especially, the poor and the lonely.

Jesus, of course, is not just for Christians. People outside the church can also value him at a human level. Yet they can do so without engaging in sentimental ritual and materialistic excess. Much of this, in any case, comes to us from Victorian England and the pages of Charles Dickens.

Perhaps the Christmas season can become a time for us, as a community, to commit ourselves anew to social justice. We might seriously consider, at this time especially, abandoning our desire for greed, lust, vengeance and war. We might even begin to give each other true gifts of love, forgiveness and peace.

 

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