“Do You See What I See?”This month, everywhere you look, you see the story of Jesus’ birth being celebrated and retold throughout “Christian” Nations. Now when I say retold, in some cases I actually MEAN retold: a story re-imagined: altered and reinvented to be more aesthetically pleasing to the consumer. Nowadays we see little drummer boys show up in Bethlehem, along with “three wise men” and angelic hosts, all gathered around a brightly-lit, warm, peaceful stable scene on the night of December 25th. But, unfortunately, most of us foolishly add and subtract from the Word of God all the time; so it should come as no surprise that it’s the same story with the real, factual account of Jesus’ birth. But, what does surprise me is this: why was this one event recognized, globally, as the penultimate holy day for all the “Christian” religions of the world? Don’t get me wrong, the birth of Christ was significant: an event foretold for thousands of years, finally come to fruition. But, spiritually speaking, it’s only the beginning of the story, and not even the part of the story of Christ’s life that is most important to Christians everywhere. Christ’s birth was just the start of a chain of events so vitally important to mankind that the volume containing that story, the Bible, is the most printed and circulated book in existence. How much more significant, spiritually, was the day when we read the account of a young twelve year old Jesus first manifesting his Godly wisdom, and teaching and preaching in the synagogue? We see Jesus take on the responsibility of being the Son of God when he says to his mother, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”. [Luke 2:43-44] We could consider the baptism of Jesus a far more spiritually significant event; one that shows us the path to salvation. We see in Mark’s Gospel account that God directly shows His approval of this blessed event. We read that the heavens opened up, and the Spirit descended upon Jesus, and a voice from heaven confirmed, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” [Mark 1:9-12]. He then went on to be tempted directly, personally, by Satan himself; and withstood those temptations. That was certainly quite a significant event, as well. All those events, along with the innumerable miracles Jesus performed, and parables Jesus taught, were significant, but really only part of the story: the parts that led up to the REAL story of Christ: his death. His whole life was spent in preparation for death; to become the sacrifice he was meant to be; the sacrifice he was born to be. This, I believe should be the most significant day on our spiritual calendar, on any Christian‘s calendar. Like many events in Jesus’ life (including his birth) we do not know exactly what day and time the event took place, but not so with his death: we know exactly when this occurred. We see it recorded in scripture, and we celebrate that event every Sunday, as we read the first Christian church did, by apostolic authority. So why does the date of his sacrifice and death, and ultimate triumph over it (the holiday we know as Easter), take a back seat to Christmas? Why does the world choose to celebrate Christ off-and-on for only a couple weeks in December? Why does the world choose to recognize the infant Jesus over the man? I think it comes down to this: responsibility. The image of little baby Jesus in a hay-filled manger requires nothing of you. But the image of a man being tortured for your own wickedness is one that is not so easily dismissed, or celebrated. I believe that today’s preoccupation with the (arbitrary) celebration of the (altered) story of Christ’s birth is best explained by considering this: it gives people what they want. The story of the birth of Christ is good theatre, it gives everyone a little religion to feel happy about, and no spiritual responsibility to feel concerned about. Let me close by saying that I’m no Grinch; nor am I an Ebenezer Scrooge, nor am I a Christmas-hater; but I do believe that if everyone could re-focus spiritually, by celebrating Christ’s sacrifice for us just as enthusiastically and joyfully as his birth, that we would have overflowing churches every Sunday, and maybe that narrow way that leads to salvation [Matthew 7:13-14] would be a crowded place; now wouldn’t that be great? Wouldn’t that be worth celebrating, too? — Paul Seely, December 18, 2011 |