The Cross at Christmas

This past weekend, I had the privilege to shadow James Macdonald during all three services that he preached.  It was a tremendous blessing and a great learning experience.  James is a gracious man and has a strong desire to teach and train men, such as myself, who are going into pastoral ministry.

In his sermon, he told a story about how earlier in his ministry, he was frustrated with how Christmas had been trampled on and abused.  Christmas had was no longer about the incarnation, it was all about the commercialization.  So, the Sunday before Christmas, he came out dressed like Santa Clause.  I'm not just talking about a Santa hat... I'm talking full garb, beard and all.  As he roamed about at the front of the auditorium, he ranted and raved about how something was wrong with Christmas, but (tongue in cheek of course), he just couldn't quite put his finger on it. 

"I just don't get it!" he yelled.

"I just can't figure it out... what has happened to Christmas, what's it all about?"

Finally, he threw off the Santa jacket and pulled off the Santa hat.  As he proceeded to walk and stomp all over the Santa suit and point the finger at the cultural obsession with the secular motivation for an obviously Christian holiday, he lifted up his head and looked across the congregation.  The dazed and confused looks brought him quickly back to reality and as he looked across the audience, the faces of small children seemed to be popping out at him.  He jokingly described parents covering the ears of their children as he obliterated their understanding of Christmas and Santa. 

While he admittedly went a little far, James hit on an important subject.  You see, he was fed up with how the world, specifically, how our secular culture had hi-jacked one of the most important celebrations and events in human history.  Instead of celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, the world (many Christians included) had begun to embrace the commercialized and materialistic "meaning" of Christmas.  It had become all about us and He was nowhere to be found.

The truth is, we aren't celebrating a baby in a manger, we are celebrating  our risen Lord.  Christmas happened so that Christ could hang on the cross.  Christmas happened so that Christ could demonstrate His love by paying for our sins.  He has conquered sin and death and is now seated at the right hand of the Father (Col. 3:1), waiting for the moment when He will gloriously return to this earth to rule and reign.  How could we forget this?  How could we ever relegate this life altering truth to the background? 

Unfortunately, this problem remains today.  Christmas has become a holiday in which we celebrate friends and family.  In the midst of gift giving and receiving, how many Christians stop to open God's Word and reorient their thinking back to Bethlehem?  How many Christians host or go to parties, but fail to ever truly celebrate the incarnation?  What has happened to Christmas?  In the busyness of the season, we're all guilty of losing site of the meaning of Christmas.  It has become a vacation from work, time to relax and see family that you haven't seen all year.  It becomes about what we think we need and what we desperately want.  Often times, we become no different from the self-serving, self-seeking, self-loving secular world, manipulated and controlled by the bombardment of advertisements.  If you're anything like me, you need to be on constant guard against the deluge of worldliness.

There is no doubt that it is a battle to keep Christ at the center of Christmas.  With the world pulling us one way, we must strive hard to push the focus back to Christ.  Don't allow this Christmas to be strictly about friends and family, gifts and cards.  Make the effort to reflect regularly and intentionally upon Christ. 

How will you make Christ the focus of this Christmas season?  Will you take time on Christmas morning to read and reflect upon the Christmas story?  Will you stop, in the midst of your conversations or maybe even your party, to share what Christ has meant to you this year?  Will you have true biblical fellowship that is centered around God's Word?  Will you have time with your fellow believers to stop and thank God for His goodness, mercy and grace this year?  Will you allow your praise and adoration to overflow into a time of prayer with those you know and love?  Will you care more about Christ and less about you? 

Will you say with the Apostle Paul, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8 ESV).  Let's give God what He so desperately wants from us this year... our undivided, single-minded, uninhibited adoration.

Praying that you have a wonderful, Christ-exalting Christmas!

Ian