// December 24th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
"He found a Golgotha...even in Bethlehem"
John Donne, in The Book of Uncommon Prayers, says, “The whole of Christ’s life was a continual passion; others die martyrs, but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha, where he was crucified, even in Bethlehem, where he was born; for to his tenderness then the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as the cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas Day and his Good Friday are but the evening and the morning of one and the same day. From the creche to the cross is an inseparable line. Christmas only points forward to Good Friday and Easter. It can have no meaning apart from that, where the Son of God displayed his glory by his death.
- Skip Ryan, “Contemplating Christmas”, from Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus, (Crossway, 2008), page 20
Sometimes mainstream Christianity drives me nuts. The American Christmas season often seems to infect me with a vague sense of conviction and a feeling of emptiness. I think it has to do with the fact that in so many ways I continue to buy into the materialism and the gluttony of it, the focus on family, and the idea that Jesus is just a cute little baby that came into the world so we could be happy and get a bunch of presents. Christmas has become a holiday of self-centeredness. Rather than inspiring us to give (our worship to God, our resources to those in need, our love to others), today’s Christmas is all about receiving. And even when we do give generously, we do it to feel better about ourselves, so that others would think well of us, ultimately, because we want to be worshipped. Christmas–i.e. the historical fact that the eternal Word became flesh, that our Almighty God came into this world of suffering and pain to live the life we couldn’t live, to die the death we should have died, and to rise in victory over Satan, sin, and death, purchasing our salvation by his sacrifice on the cross–should absolutely destroy any sense of entitlement within us. It should put us on our faces and beat out of us the idea that we somehow deserve blessing, or that God owes us a life of comfort, prosperity and happiness.
The current financial crisis that we find ourselves in has been such a blessing. When the economy is doing well, we are so consumed by our consumerism that Christmas is neutered of its meaning. In times of prosperity, we get our joy from the receiving of gifts, and we associate Jesus’ birth with the attainment of worldly blessing. But in times of suffering, we are reminded that Jesus was born into a life of poverty and pain. We are reminded that God so loved his own, so hated sin, and so empathized with suffering that the Word got off his throne and came here as a warrior on a mission to save us sinners, by suffering on our behalf. Christmas has no meaning unless it is connected to the Cross. Until we understand God’s incarnation, life, passion, death, resurrection, and exaltation as one continuous act of sacrificial love, we cannot begin to grasp the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus’ manger in Bethlehem is connected to his cross on Golgotha. Those who tell the story of Christmas apart from the Cross portray Jesus as a baby Santa Claus (sans the red velvet get-up and the morbid obesity) and effectively distort the Gospel, wrongly emphasizing love apart from sacrifice, and mercy apart from justice.
Those who hesitate to accept this truth–that the purpose of Jesus’ birth was his death–argue that Christmas should be about celebration, and the comfort, peace and joy that the Christmas story brings. They believe that the Cross is disturbing, and in contrast Christmas should be uplifting. I would say this response reveals that they do not understand the real Christmas story: the Gospel. The cross is the ultimate revelation of God’s glory. It shows us the depth of our sin, the size of our debt to God, and the magnitude of God’s provision in Christ. As J.I. Packer explains in his chapter on grace in Knowing God, we cannot respond appropriately to God’s grace until we understand these things that were revealed on the cross. And I would say, therefore, that without a connection to the cross, our Christmas celebrations–the response of joyful worship to the grace and love of Christ our Immanuel–will be inappropriate, inadequate and void of meaning. Likewise, our imitation of Christ’s generous giving will be manufactured for our own sake rather than His. Until we meditate on the Golgotha that Christ encountered in Bethlehem, our Christmases will leave us feeling spiritually empty, and yet full of the worldly kind of joy that so quickly fades away.
Christmas is disturbing:
Many people who otherwise ignore God and the church have some religious feeling, or feel they ought to, at this time of the year. So they make their way to a church service or Christmas program. And when they go, they come away feeling vaguely warmed or at least better for having gone, but not disturbed.
Why aren’t people disturbed by Christmas? One reason is our tendency to sanitize the birth narratives. We romanticize the story of Mary and Joseph rather than deal with the painful dilemma they faced when the Lord chose Mary to be the virgin who would conceive her child by the power of the Holy Spirit. We beautify the birth scene, not coming to terms with the stench of the stable, the poverty of the parents, the hostility of Herod. Don’t miss my point. There is something truly comforting and warming about the Christmas story, but it comes from understanding the reality, not from denying it.
Most of us also have not come to terms with the baby in the manger. We sing, “Glory to the newborn King.” But do we truly recognize that the baby lying in the manger is appointed by God to be the King, to be either the Savior or Judge of all people? He is a most threatening person.
Malachi foresaw his coming and said, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” As long as we can keep him in the manger, and feel the sentimental feelings we have for babies, Jesus doesn’t disturb us. But once we understand that his coming means for every one of us either salvation or condemnation, he disturbs us deeply.
What should be just as disturbing is the awful work Christ had to do to accomplish the salvation of his people. Yet his very name, Jesus, testifies to us of that work.
That baby was born so that “he who had no sin” would become “sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The baby’s destiny from the moment of his conception was hell-hell in the place of sinners. When I look into the manger, I come away shaken as I realize again that he was born to pay the unbearable penalty for my sins.
That’s the message of Christmas: God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, man’s sin has alienated him from God, and man’s reconciliation with God is possible only through faith in Christ…Christmas is disturbing.
- William H. Smith, “Christmas is disturbing: Any real understanding of the Christmas messages will disturb anyone”, WORLD Magazine, December 1992 [HT: CJM]
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
