The Christian who holds to the Bible as God’s all-sufficient Word tends to have mixed feelings about a festival like Christmas. In the Old Testament there were three great feasts each year (Deut.16) – Passover (to celebrate Israel’s redemption from bondage in Egypt), Weeks (or Harvest or Pentecost, to celebrate the end of the grain harvest), and Booths (or Tabernacles, to celebrate mainly the gathering of grapes and the like). After the Jews were spared genocide at the hands of the Persians in the days of Esther, the Feast of Purim was instituted (Esther 9:20-32). Later, in 164 B.C in the days of the Maccabees, the Feast of Dedication celebrated the defeat of the brutal Seleucid king, Antiochus Epiphanes IV, and the rededication of the temple. This feast is not actually mentioned in the Old Testament, but it seems that Jesus may have kept it (see John 10:22-23), although the seventeenth century Scottish Covenanter, George Hutcheson, sees no evidence of any approbation on Christ’s part.
Christmas comes, and the Christian realises that God has not commanded that we keep a feast for Christ’s birth. He has commanded that we believe that He sent His Son into this world through a virgin conception. Yet there is nothing sacrosanct about 25 December as such; it is not, as the Catholics teach, a holy day of obligation. This is a sentimental age, addicted to lazy thinking. Some years back the popular ‘Carols in the Domain’ had John Lennon’s Imagine included amongst the carols! In his own lyrical yet dogmatic way, Lennon celebrated that there was no heaven or hell, and no religion. Then we have all the Santa business, which seems designed to break the tenth commandment more than anything. Add to that the absurdity of Australians dreaming of a White Christmas, with no mention of Christ at all.
The fact is that the centre of the gospel concerns the death and resurrection of Christ rather than His birth (1 Cor.15:3-4). In baptism, we are baptized into Christ’s death (Rom.6:3-4), and at the Lord’s Supper we proclaim His death till He comes again (1 Cor.11:26). The reason why the unbelieving world has made some sort of peace with Christmas is that it has distorted its message. What it is all about, apparently, is not the incarnation of the Son of God but a rather vaguer spirit of Christmas.
And yet there seems to be much more that ought to be said. There is a God-ordained flexibility about these matters in making the gospel known (1 Cor.9:19-23). God may use Christmas to reach an unbeliever, so let us be alert to that possibility and hope. Furthermore, what Christian can resist the call of the carols? Who could have phrased the praises of Christ better than Charles Wesley in his Hark! The Herald Angels Sing:
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus our Immanuel!
The coming of Christ into the world – that the Lord of glory got His feet dirty by walking on the dust of this fallen grubby earth – is something worthy of the highest praise.
Even in our own corrupt days, there are signs of a certain softening of attitude, of a slowing down of life for a time, and perhaps even moments of reflection. Then we understand why Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that ‘The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, who look forward to something greater to come. For these it is enough to wait in humble fear until the Holy One himself comes down to us, God in the child in the manger. God comes. The Lord Jesus comes. Christmas comes. Christians rejoice!’
With warmest regards in Christ,
Peter Barnes