The celebration of Christmas - exhibited in plastic trees to plastic credit cards - has become increasingly artificial. The real meaning is often stripped away and covered with colored wrapping paper.
In Japan, as in the United States, Christmas shopping is a big commercial success. A television interviewer stopped a young woman on the sidewalk and asked her, "What is the meaning of Christmas?" Laughing nervously she admitted, "I don't know. Is that the day Jesus died?" Sadly, there was an element of truth in her answer. The message of Jesus' birth to many is dying or is already dead.
We expect that the unbelieving world will try everything it can to make the celebration of the Savior's birth as artificial as possible in order to reduce its actual significance. The heartwarming account that Christians read in Luke 2, has been reduced to just a legend - something unreal but nevertheless celebrated for its superstitious or traditional value. The celebration is so covered with plastic, tinsel, colored lights, and other decorations, that the birth of the Son of God has been covered up. Even Christians may find that all the wrappings of Christmas threaten to reduce the gift of God to something of secondary importance. There is a danger that we will get caught up in the same parade.
Why unbelievers celebrate at all at Christmas time is anyone's guess. But, Christians must take upon themselves to declare this the greatest gift in all the history of the world. God sent a Savior. This was the gift most needed. If man needed pleasure, He would have sent an entertainer. If man needed more technology, He would have sent a scientist. If man needed money, God would have sent an economist or a government bail-out. But man needed salvation - the forgiveness of sins. So God sent a Savior - exactly what man needed.
This was not just an ordinary birth that we celebrate. It was an incarnation. Mary was not just an unwed mother, but the virgin that God chose to conceive a child through His Holy Spirit. A perfect Mediator had come to reconcile a people unto God. Herod and others felt threatened by his appearance, but the angels of God and the humble shepherds rejoiced as never before.
It is not surprising that so many try to cover up the birth of Christ with artificiality. To begin with, a celebration of the Incarnation requires repentance from sin before the coming of Jesus has any meaning. On the surface, all the artificiality looks like it is covering up a birth. In fact it is covering up a death. The unbeliever is not just covering up the birth of Christ, he is covering up his own deadness in sin. He has fashioned his wardrobe from fig leaves just like Adam and Eve who tried to cover their sin. It too was an artificial covering that God had to remove in order to give them the clothing acceptable to Him.
Anyone who buries the real joy of the Christmas celebration with artificiality is exposing his own artificiality. He is a fake - living in denial of who he really is. It is not that the birth of Christ has been hidden. It has been proclaimed through the ages, beginning at Genesis 3:15. The problem is the blindness of man. Jesus taught this when he said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." (Matt. 11:25-27)
There is no amount of wrapping that can actually hide the birth of Christ to those to whom God wants to have it revealed. He will not do it with candles or colored lights, but with the light of His Word and the penetrating power of His Spirit. God wrapped His Son in swaddling clothes, not to conceal Him, but to reveal the humility of Jesus' birth. Eventually, all the plastic and artificial wrappings will be stripped away, and man will stand before God, either naked in sin or clothed in the righteousness of Christ. This is genuine.
The artificiality of Christmas grieves both God and us. "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith - the salvation of your souls." (I Pet. 1:6-9)
Beloved, celebrate Christ's birth with a real faith in a real Savior. Praise God for ripping off the artificiality of our own sinful hearts and revealing Him to us!
