Christmas!

Since it is right after Christmas, I decided to post my paper I wrote about Christmas! :) 

If you could ask Jesus a question, what would it be? My question would be, “The first time that You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior? And the first breath that left Your lips, did You know that it would change this world forever?”(Relient-K). Around 2-4 B.C., in Bethlehem, the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Life Application Study Bible). The birth of Jesus was a single act motivated by the most unconditional and everlasting love of all, the love of God for His creation.  Because of the familiarity of the Christmas story, humans often overlook the overpowering nature of what God did in that moment. In one second the whole universe changed. The birth of Christ is the prime example of God’s love and humility and is the day that marked the destruction of Satan.

God’s limitless love is what brought Him to a manger in Bethlehem and later brought him down the long path to Calvary. Christ coming to earth is the act of sublime love and humility whereby God took it upon Himself to enter into the depths of our world, our life, and our reality in order that the reconciliation and consequent union between God and humanity may be brought about (Frost and Hirsch). By becoming human, Jesus guides the path of how to become stronger Christians and how to love others. His ordinariness invites us to follow him by providing us with a template of how to be Godlike even as an ordinary human being (Frost and Hirsch). Jesus shows us that love is not optional; it is a command from God, and that our love is a reflection of our intimacy with Him.

Jesus becoming a human also shows the radical humility of God. For many people the humanity of Christ is one of the most difficult and uncomfortable things to grasp due to the extreme humility. Christians are quick to accept that Jesus is all-powerful and worthy of worship and praise. However it is harder to face that Jesus became completely human and that he came humbly to serve us. Duane Elmer says, “When God chose to connect with humans, he did so as a servant.” The first earthly image we get of Christ is of Jesus in a stable. Contrary to most Christmas cards, stables were dark and dirty; they were not the surroundings the Jews expected as the birthplace of the Messiah (Life Application Study Bible). The scene announces humility, weakness, exposure, vulnerability and lowliness. The last image we got of Jesus as he ends his earthly life is a broken body hanging on the cross. The scene communicates humiliation, suffering, failure and, to many, defeat (Elmer). This ultimate humility makes it hard for some to comprehend Christ being fully human.

When Christ was born, the destruction of Satan had begun. 1 John 3:8 says, “The Son of God came for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s work.” Jesus Christ came to earth to save us from our sins and to spare us from hell. Genesis 3:15 correlates with this by saying, “One of her descendants will crush your head, and you will bite his heel.” This verse is predicting Satan’s repeated attempts to defeat Christ during his life on earth. “One…will crush your head” foreshadows Satan’s defeat when Christ rose from the dead. A bruise on the heel is not deadly, but a strike on the head is. God is already revealing his plan to defeat Satan and offer salvation to the world through his Son, Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God has already gone through its darkest night. The most dismal evil in all history found its absolute limits at Calvary (Blue). Christ came to destroy Satan’s work in the earth.

The devil has turned Christmas from a time of celebration of Jesus Christ, into a selfish holiday. Christmas in our culture is centered around presents and receiving instead of Christ and serving. God is not bound or hindered by culture since He is sovereign, but He chooses to use diversity in culture as a way to interact with His creation (Craft). The prince of this world has made us the focus of this holiday. May we focus on the verses in Matthew which says store up treasures in Heaven and whatever we do for the least of people, we do for the Lord. Our obsessions are discovered by where we spend our time and money. When we obsess over worldly things we fail to focus on what matters. God’s first commandment requires us to be obsessed with Him alone. Christmas is meant to praise the King of Kings for his humility and love towards us. Jesus saved us from an eternity in hell and for this we should always be thankful. My favorite Christmas song ends with the verse, “and I, celebrate the day, that you were born to die, so I could one day pray for you to save my life” (Relient-K). Christmas is a time of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord for what he has done for us.