Articles
The Strange Phenomenon of Christmas
‘Tis the season ... to scratch our heads and wonder about the meaning of the “holidays.” (For those who are sticklers about avoiding certain words, the etymology of holiday is “holy day.”). When I was a youngster, I was not aware of any controversy surrounding Christmas. In our home it wasn’t associated in any way with a religious observance. It was about a decorated tree, presents and Mom’s lasagna.
But others were raised differently. Some do not observe Christmas at all as a matter of conscience; they don’t want to be affiliated in any way with something they consider unauthorized. At the other end of the spectrum are those who avidly defend Christmas as a solemn yet joyful celebration of the birth of Jesus. They plead “Keep Christ in Christmas”; make a special effort to attend worship (often for the first time since Easter); and decorate their houses and lawns with Bethlehem imagery.
For those who consider Christmas to be a commemoration of Jesus’ birth, there are some troubling facts to consider:
1. The New Testament gives no instruction about observing Jesus’ birth.
2. The specific time of Jesus’ birth is unknown (cf. Lk 2:2).
3. Celebrating Jesus’ birth on December 25 is first mentioned in the time of Constantine, about AD 325.
4. This time was deliberately chosen to coincide with pagan feasts commemorating the winter solstice; i.e., the gradual lengthening of daylight.
5. More could be said about the factual inaccuracy of Christmas imagery (the number of wise men is not known; the shepherds and wise men are often depicted together; etc.). But altogether, the very religious flavor of Christmas is misleading. It was not as idyllic as the carols make it out to be. The slaughter of the Bethlehem baby boys, the flight into Egypt … the birth of Jesus was more like dark storm clouds brewing rather than the “all is calm, all is bright … sleep in heavenly peace” lyrics of Silent Night.
Nowhere is there a stronger temptation to improvise on the worship that God has instituted than Christmas. Strong emotional bonds to Christmas have moved man to manufacture a self-created holy day. This violates a consistent Scriptural principle: Only God has the right to establish the actions that He deems fit to honor Him. While men are free to make up their own ways of honoring each other – statues, medals, green jackets, paintings, money, attaching names to buildings, etc. – God has always set the standard of how He wants men to worship Him.
Let me hasten to add that there is nothing wrong whatsoever with thanking God for Jesus’ birth, singing to honor the event, even indulging our emotions at the thought of what Joseph and Mary endured in the journey to Bethlehem, the anxiety of finding no place to stay, of Mary going into labor and delivering the Son of God presumably in a stable. What wonder we have in God’s arrangement of things! But there is a warning even in this: God often does the exact opposite of what we might expect. So when we “go it on our own” and improvise in worship, how can we possibly be sure that we are doing what God approves? The fact that Scripture does not reveal the time when Jesus was born and issues no command whatsoever to make it an official day of worship is telling.
On the flip side, Christmas (again, for the etymologists, Christ’s Mass) in our culture bears a secular aspect. Many carve a deep line of mental demarcation between celebrating Jesus’ birth and enjoying a time of gift giving, family visits, good food, football and a break from work. This dual element of the holiday means that many Christians can engage in the secular aspects without it being either unauthorized worship or sending a misleading religious message to their neighbors and friends. (When living in London our Jewish neighbor would buy Christmas presents for the kids, and we obviously never concluded she was celebrating Jesus’ birth.)
This “hybrid holiday” puts us in the position of deciding:
1. What our personal conscience can bear (Rom 14:5b, 14, 23).
2. To respect those who conscientiously refrain from Christmas festivities. They should not be pressured or demeaned but rather allowed room to do as they choose (Rom 14:1, 3a, 4, 10b, 13, 15, 19-21; 15:1-3).
3. To allow the liberty of others to celebrate a secular holiday without accusing them of sin. It is one thing to have misgivings about someone’s convictions; it is another thing to judge them unfaithful (Rom 14:3b, 5b, 10a, 10c-13).
4. To avoid material excess. Even if Christmas is seen in a secular light, the pressure to give the “right” gift, the avalanche of toys/books/clothes/games heaped on children to their emotional overload belie an unhealthy attachment to things. Truly, there are elements of Christmas that bring out the worst in people rather than the best.
Happy Holidays.
