“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

Two decades ago I remember there being occasions of where families would come together to share in the ‘spirit’ of Christmas. This very aspect of giving and of valuing one another was more prominent than what it is today. Of course, even then Christmas had its materialistic approach and many others would say that such an occasion had lost its true spirit in comparison to when they were younger. But oh what a decline in recent years so much to the point that society wants Christ totally removed from Christmas. The social aspect of families gathering together is few and far between these days and all we have left is a big commercial rush (to include bodily injury or death to others), a great excuse for excess in many forms, an unleashing of our selfish desires, greed and a huge amount of increased financial debt and maybe, maybe if we listen hard enough – a faint echo of the hymns of Christ’s entrance into this world to salve our seared conscience!

But even in the majority of gathered families, family unity of giving and sharing in all the festivities and traditions of Christmas failed to truly acknowledge the meaning of ‘God coming in the flesh and dwelling among us’. So many were more than content in singing carols on Christmas Eve in candle light followed by a few mince pies and mulled wine and then off to indulge in the festive activities without giving Christ another thought.

Only last week I was discussing with someone the meaning of Christmas and it is amazing how some will just stop at the advent of Christ’s birth. So many complain that Christ is being taken out of Christmas, the nativity scenes removed from front yards, gardens and windows because it offends those of other beliefs. So many fight for this and that right; “this is the way this nation has celebrated Christmas and so it shall always be, and no one’s taking away my rights” kind of scenario. What is so sad is how many Christians will stand up for the wrong reasons. There are countless amounts of people that fight for this and that right without even realizing what they’re standing for. Pure tradition, which is no different than the Pharisees that boasted in their laws and yet were a million miles away from the truth!

Our failure has just been to stop at the ‘Baby Jesus’ without considering why Christ came into this world. If that is all it’s about then we are the most pitiable people on the face of this planet. I mentioned to the person (above) that Christ came to take away the sin of the world, our sin – yours and mine and to reconcile us to God. This is the whole purpose of why Christ is celebrated at Christmas (not that I believe that He came at this time of year). I was amazed at how the conversation ended as if such a thing were foreign to one’s outlook! Why even entertain such celebrations if we don’t know the very purpose of it? It’s just like receiving a letter from someone really important, some one we really love and only reading half of it we miss out on the greater part. Having all the nativity scenes (take out the wise men at that particular time!) and carol singing is absolutely pointless if we cannot acknowledge with amazement and wonder why God came and dwelt among us. It is a travesty of such truth!

When we consider such passages as in Luke 2, verses 8-14 or 16-20, we see that Christ was the centrality of their joy: 8-14,

“Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a SAVIOR, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”…and then in verse 16-20,

“And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.”

The shepherds knew WHY the SAVIOR had come, this was the GOOD news that the Redeemer had at last come into the world as was foretold by the prophets, and Paul says in Galatians 4:4-5,

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

And he gives further reason of Christ’s purpose coming into the world as stated in Romans 3:23-26,

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

This is the good news and this is the whole purpose of Christ coming into the world to offer Himself up as a sacrifice for our sins because there was NO other way for God to forgive sin, absolutely no other way to be reconciled unto God but through Christ. So many in this world think that Christ became a martyr and imply He was an innocent man, a great teacher, a great revolutionist that was caught in the net of the most insidious death. Nothing could be further from the truth! For this purpose Christ came,

“for God so loved the world that He GAVE His only begotten Son…” …and

“…who was DELIVERED UP for our sins, and was raised for our justification.”

For this purpose Christ came as Savior, for this purpose He came to die and take upon himself our punishment that we may know everlasting life in abundance.

No wonder the hymns were written by the greats not because they got into this so called ‘Christmas spirit’ as what it is today but because they saw the glories of why Christ came, why He died, why He rose again from the dead, why He ascended back into heaven and why He is yet to return again in great glory and power. These hymns weren’t mere poetry, such hymn writers were moved with intense emotion as they experienced the realities of these truths. But oh, how we’ve stolen them and sing them so often without even realizing what we’re singing about, they’re just another collection to our ‘Jingle Bells’! How dull and slow we are and how blind to not see our God veiled in the flesh!

Can we REALLY reflect anew upon the well known words by Charles Wesley (1707-1788):

Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With the angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ the Everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see!
Hail the incarnate Deity!
Pleased as Man with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel.

Hail the heaven born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conquering Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

And the hymn by Isaac Watts (1674-1748):

Joy to the world! the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the earth! the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
The wonders of His love.

Oh that we would be as passionate in our faith throughout the year round as much as we are in our desire and protest to ‘keep’ the Christmas celebrations in the traditional sense. That Christ would truly be central in our hearts as we celebrate this mystery: God made flesh and dwelt among us; Son of God, Son of Man – God in Christ reconciling us to Himself!