With Christmas just five days away (if you count today), I thought I would focus some thoughts on the Christmas holiday. Recently, I saw a commercial featuring a local television station's news team (anchors and reporters) expressing holiday wishes to their viewers. Only one (of over a dozen) used the expression "Merry Christmas!" For the rest, "Happy Holidays!" was the greeting of choice.
What should we take from this? Are these people anti-Christmas? Or did they just want to include the entire holiday season (Christmas and New Years) in their holiday greetings? Since I have not asked them, I would be hard pressed to know for sure. But I do know this: the Christmas season is losing its religious content as it is becoming increasingly secular in nature.
A U.S. District Court Judge, Susan Dlott delivered our culture's verdict on Christmas when she stated the following about Christmas in one of her rulings: "The celebration of Christmas as a national holiday cannot be viewed by any reasonable person as an endorsement of religion. The holiday itself is so imbued with secular connotations that, indeed, its religious origins are lost on many."
So what does this mean for those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ? Understanding this should compel us to redouble our efforts not to allow our culture's view of Christmas to distract us from the true meaning of Christmas. This is best summed up by what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). God the Son, willingly stepped from the brilliant glory of the throne room of heaven into the dark recesses of the womb of a virgin named Mary. This began his journey to the cross upon which he would die a violent death to pay the penalty for our sin rightly demanded by a just and holy God. In taking our place, he faced the wrath of the justice of God so that we would never have to! So the true meaning of Christmas begins with a birth and "ends" with a death. For Jesus was born to die! But his journey did not end with his death. For the true meaning of the Easter holiday reminds us that death could not keep Jesus in its cold and icy grip. Today he lives and we who celebrate his birth this Christmas do so knowing that we worship and serve a living savior!
My friends, if you have any questions about the true meaning of Christmas and how you should respond, I encourage you to view this video by GotQuestions.org.
Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj
No comments:
Post a Comment