To all our people a Saviour is born

23.DEC.10

by Kenyatta Lewis, President – Association of Evangelical Churches

I recently learned that Christmas changes a lot of things. One of the first things that Christmas changes is your weight, then your wallet, then your house, followed by your mood, but most importantly, Christmas changes your life. Another less desirable thing that seems to pop up every time December 25th rolls around is the controversy that it engineers.{{more}} It was the Americans, ever attentive to trends, Americans that recently polled that half of Americans in the US population prefer ‘Merry Christmas’ to ‘Happy Holidays’, with the other half, of course, preferring the other less definitive greeting. In days gone by, it was the battle between Christmas and Xmas. Other discussions centered around the constantly increasing commercialization of Christmas with the various theological arguments about the right date for the birth of Jesus, the number of wise men, and the wealth of the soon to be parents couple. I think that we have sort of generally settled on the slogan ‘Jesus is the reason for the season’. I like it, it’s catchy, it rhymes and it’s easy to blurt out when we are in the longest line at the supermarket and getting increasingly frustrated at the fact that everybody spends so much money around this time of the year. However, though I like its simplicity and ease of memorizing, it is wrong (not everything that is likable is right).

The reason that it is wrong is that it is not complete, and half truths and are equally half lies. Jesus is definitely not the reason for the season, because he is the reason for all of life. The truth lies in the difference and the difference makes a whole lot of meaning, meaning that we glean from scripture and meaning that is quite simply paramount to faith, living and the Gospel. Am I nitpicking? Yes. Do I need to? Yes. Why? We devalue the incarnation of Christ when we glibly remark that he is the reason for Christmas when the greatest story ever told is that Jesus Christ is the reason for all of life, the creator of life, the sustainer of life and for whom all things were created that was created. Everything that was made was made by him. Without him, nothing that was made was made. He, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, he himself is God, he demands worships and accepts it, he has all authority on earth and in heaven, added to that Christians are commanded to live for Him and Him alone, putting nothing and no one before him in their affections. He is supreme to all things, is the head of the Church, is before all things and rules over every earthly throne or seat of power.

The rest of the story is found in the pages of the Bible, but there still some things I want to mention here. The baby that was wrapped in clothes in the stable, whose parents fled to Egypt to avoid the wrath of a vindictive, cruel tyrant, is worth our worship. The baby may look helpless, the baby may look powerless, but that baby is the Son of God, and we should like the shepherds, and the Magi, worship him, and to worship him means he, Jesus, takes the place of adoration and reverence in our lives. The baby was born to allow men and women, trapped in bondage to sin and its demands, freedom from such slavery. The baby was born to present a more satisfying, abundant life to those thirsty for true life, not the substitute that is wasted in debauchery, vice and evil. The baby was born to crush the head of the adversary of God and of mankind, the Satan. The baby was born to reconcile men and women to God, to make peace where enmity existed and to bring all things on earth and in heaven under one sole authority.

Is Jesus Christ the reason for Christmas? No, he is not. He is the reason for all of life and living.