Celebrating Christmas from the Heart

For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7b

Like everyone else right now I am examining my own and my family’s celebrations of Christmas. Many years ago, before I was a Christian, I read a book called “Unplug the Christmas Machine.” Reading it caused me to begin to eliminate those things that were unimportant to me or my family and keep the things we all thought were helpful, and add whatever may have been missing.

At that time we had three traditions that my husband and both children wanted to continue: a dinner we did with several other families just before Christmas, our Christmas Eve dinner and celebration with my husband’s family, including worshipping together at a Christmas Eve service, and Christmas Day dinner with my family in Delaware. So, we kept those and we did away with some baking of cookies, sending Christmas cards to anyone we would see to say Merry Christmas to, and some of the decorating.

At the time we were in a mainline church that celebrated the Advent season. It seemed like Christmas started the first Sunday of December and went until early January. Now, in an Evangelical church we don’t really recognize an Advent season. We sing carols and look forward to the coming of the Messiah – but there is no ceremony. For some reason this year Advent has come up in conversations for me several times. I have also heard and read more this year in Christian circles about having no celebration at all. There is no Biblcal command to celebrate the birth of our Savior but neither are we told not to.

As I read through the account of the birth of Christ in the book of Matthew there is a detail that I think many of us miss. We take up a lot of energy deciding on these issues about whether or not Christmas is a day or a season, what day it actually is, and whether or not we honor God with Christmas trees and wreaths. We rarely even talk about why He came, actually why He was sent.

Many people – Christians and non-Christians live in guilt and fear. They are afraid that though God has saved them He has not really forgiven them – or that He could not save them. They believe there is some sin so great that He could not possibly love them.

After Mary conceived and Joseph had learned about it he was of a mind to divorce her quietly. Then, Matthew 1:20-23 says, But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). (emphasis mine)

“For He will save His people from their sins.” This is the message I wish we would talk about at Christmas. Every single person ever born must deal with his sin. Romans 3:10 says, “None is righteous, no, not one.” And Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Before the Lord got a hold of me I was one who thought I was plenty good and that I did not have to worry about judgment or where I would go when I died. No one – and I was in church every Sunday for most of my life – told me that I had a sin problem. The truth is that EVERYONE has a sin problem.

The rest of that story on the sin is that God also says that, “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” (Romans 6:23) In the Old Testament God required the sacrifice of an animal to pay for the sin of a person. Before the sacrifice was made the person would lay hands on the head of the animal and symbolically pass his sin to the animal and then the animal was killed. Blood was shed for sin. Hebrews 9:22 tells us, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

Christ shed His blood for our sin. He is Immanauel, God with us. He is still saving people from their sin based on His single sacrifice. That is how God planned it. He was sent as a baby to live as a sinless person so that there was no need for Him to die for His own sin. His death was only to save His people from their sin.

In our examinations of our Christmas celebrations can we talk about the sacrifice Christ made, shedding His blood for our sin? Messiah has come!! I have no problem celabrating such a great gift from God. His birth was a sign of the everlasting love of the One True God. It was a sign of His faithfulness to His people fulfilling His prophetic promises of the Messiah. And, it was a blessing to each one who would believe. If we place our sin on Him, His death is enough. We don’t need to live in guilt (though we may have to live with some earthly consequences), and we don’t need to live in fear of judgment because it is the coming of the Messiah, the Christ child, that makes it possible to have our sins forgiven – removed as far as the East is from the West.

God loves to hear our praises and He delights in our obedience. Truthfully, I think he bases His judgment of how we celebrate Christmas like He does everything else – by what is in our hearts – not the outward symbols we use. But, I also know from the scriptures that Jesus said, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Can we explain Christmas to others by what Jesus came to do rather than by what we do to celebrate that coming?