I know I said the blog was on a break, but I couldn’t resist. Here are some words of wisdom from pastors, writers, and others on the topic of Christmas. Have a Merry Christmas!
[All bolding mine]
For the great and powerful of this world, there are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid deep down in their souls, from which they shy away. These are the manger and the cross of Jesus Christ. No powerful person dares to approach the manger, and this even includes King Herod. For this is where thrones shake, the mighty fall, the prominent perish, because God is with the lowly. Here the rich come to nothing, because God is with the poor and hungry, but the rich and satisfied he sends away empty. Before Mary, the maid, before the manger of Christ, before God in lowliness, the powerful come to naught; they have no right, no hope; they are judged.
If the Son would come all this way to become a real person to you, don’t you think the Holy Spirit will do anything in His power to make Jesus a real person to you in your heart? Christmas is the invitation to know Christ personally. Christmas is an invitation by God to say: Look what I’ve done to come near to you. Now draw near to me. I don’t want to be a concept; I want to be a friend.
We are told that the whole dreary business must go on because it is good for trade. It is in fact merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition of our country, and indeed of the world, in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things. I don’t know the way out. But can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers? If the worst comes to the worst I’d sooner give them money for nothing and write it off as a charity. For nothing? Why, better for nothing than for a nuisance.
You can read every fairy tale that was ever written, every mystery thriller, every ghost story, and you will never find anything so shocking, so strange, so weird and spellbinding as the story of the incarnation of the Son of God. God, how dead we are! How callous and unfeeling to Your glory and Your story! How often have I had to repent and say, “God, I am sorry that the stories men have made up stir my emotions, my awe and wonder and admiration and joy more than your own true story.” The space thrillers of our day, like Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back can do this great good for us: they can humble us and bring us to repentance by showing us that we really are capable of some of the wonder and awe and amazement that we so seldom feel when we contemplate the eternal God and the cosmic Christ and a real living contact between them and us in Jesus of Nazareth. When Jesus said, “For this I have come into the world,” He said something as crazy and weird and strange and eerie as any statement in science fiction that you have ever read.
The three purposes of Christmas are in the three statements that the angel made at the very first Christmas. First, he said, “Fear not for I bring you good news of great joy.” Then he said, “For unto you is born this day a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” Then he said, “And peace on earth, goodwill toward men.” Now that’s the three purposes of Christmas. The first purpose is celebration, the second purpose is salvation, and the third purpose is reconciliation.
Christmas is coming. We live our lives between the first Christmas and the second. We look back to that first Christmas and the life of Jesus on the earth for some 33 years—but we look forward to the Christmas in which the resurrected Christ will return and we, his resurrected people, will live with him forever on the New Earth. And right when we think “It doesn’t get any better than this”….it will!
Truth is, we all hate demotions. If we get demoted in an organization, we usually leave it. If we didn’t get the table that we thought we were going to get in a restaurant, we usually exit…nobody likes demotions.”
And yet on Christmas Day, the single greatest demotion in all of recorded history occurred: the voluntary demotion of Jesus Christ, who did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped but made himself nothing.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let Earth receive her King! Let every heart, prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing!’ So sings the grand old Christmas carol, with the implication that now, with the coming of Jesus into our world and our lives, things are going to be really different.
Christmas is not about the living God coming to tell us everything’s all right. John’s Gospel isn’t about Jesus speaking the truth and everyone saying “Of course! Why didn’t we realize it before?” It is about God shining his clear, bright torch into the darkness of our world, our lives, our hearts, our imaginations—and the darkness not comprehending it. It’s about God, God as a little child, speaking words of truth, and nobody knowing what he’s talking about.
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Listen, because the incomprehensible Word, the child, speaks to you. Don’t patronize him; don’t reject him; don’t sentimentalize him. Learn the language within which he makes sense. And come to the table to enjoy the breakfast, the breakfast which is he himself, the Word made flesh, the Life which is our life, our light, our glory.
