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As I was searching for a subject to write about, my wife recently mentioned that it must be hard, “really hard” for a Scrooge to write a Christmas article.
I took exception to that while secretly admitting to at least some guilt. After all, bah humbug aside, I’ve struggled since becoming a young adult with what seemed as the unbridled and excessive merriment of the Christmas season. While my wife looks toward the joy of giving, and a month of Christmas music, my thoughts are usually mired in justifying the indulgence and the stress of supporting all this jollity.
All grumbling aside and making an effort to reform myself, I initiated steps toward having expectations of a good Christmas week. To begin with, I had to ponder as to what is a good Christmas and how high should my expectations be? I believe that I can answer the first question in principle by stating that a good Christmas must stay directed toward the Christ of Christmas. But what I am suggesting is not merely a nod toward a nativity scene or some mindless participation in a church Christmas program, nor even simply reading the Christmas story before the “real” fun breaks out. I am suggesting nothing less than whole-hearted meditation on the incarnation of Christ expecting it to challenge my feeble grasp. It is to reckon that the incarnation is not some mere fixed event in time, suitable only for the support of family reunions and good cheer, but one that both inaugurates and makes possible the continual working of God as he prepares this world toward a profound change.
This preparation was signaled by the prophet Isaiah, who wrote that “a child will be born and given to us, and the government will rest on His shoulders.” Isaiah 9:6 This was a direct reference to the eternal Christ coming into our world as a baby, the very one who had set the stars in their places, created us, and put our ecosystem in place. The fact that Christ was born as one of us, true flesh and blood, is essential toward our understanding of truth, which leads to salvation. Most importantly, the very physicality of the Son of God bridges the gap between a holy unapproachable God and us as sinful human beings. This is simply profound in that the physical incarnation allowed a holy God to come in close to us not as an unapproachable Spirit but as a person who then experienced the fullness of life as we also experience it yet without sin.
The birth of Jesus Christ is also profound in that it provided the true means to discharge the penalty for our sin in His own body for our sakes. The physicality of Christ being made like us made Him sufficient to stand in our place of judgment while the fact that He was God in the flesh allowed him to fully bury our sin in His body and satisfy the justice of a holy God forever. Furthermore, seeing how Christ being raised physically for witnesses to have seen and touched Him provided incredible hope that all who meet this Christ of Christmas by faith can be confident of living forever in a new indestructible physical body just like His.
Finally, I should add that this coming of Christ as an infant opened the path and set in motion a wonderful kingdom of peace to come, a kingdom according to the prophet Daniel that will crush all the kingdoms of the earth forever and yet itself remain for all eternity. Dan 2:44 If Jesus had never been born, we would be forever without hope, doomed to a cycle of unjust and brutal governments, misery, failure and lives crippled by sin, held captive by the god of this world and then eternal death. It’s clear that without the birth of Jesus there would be no us nor a world, for it would have been long since judged and destroyed. These truths are the bedrock of a good Christmas and if you diligently seek him from the word of God, you might very well expect a joyful response especially if you’re a humbug or perhaps even a Scrooge.
As to adjusting my expectations of Christmas cheer, I am confident that if I practice what I just preached I cannot be disappointed. By allowing the incarnation of Jesus Christ to fill my thoughts I should not be surprised to find a Christmas joy in giving just like my wife already does, especially when you consider that it was God who gave his Son for us and it was Christ who gave his life for us and it is his spirit that gives life to us. Give, give give. Isn’t that just the grace of God. So, with a heart full of joy, merry Christmas to all and to all a good Christmas.
Joel Cooper is the senior pastor at Grace Community Church in Howard City.
