The Truth About Christmas

This time of year I hear a lot pastors complaining that Christ has been taken out of Christmas. Instead let’s stop stressing about putting Christ back in Christmas because the truth is it was never about Him. Here’s the thing the church never should’ve allowed the birth of Christ to be mixed with all of the other things or celebrations. This is where we get it wrong. We have the freedom to celebrate the man made traditions. Let’s be honest, it’s pretty difficult to live in this world and not be mixed up with secular or even pagan things. It’s there we consider heart posture. The Christian is not worshiping a tree.

It’s also wonderful to celebrate the birth of Yeshua. We should not, however, make all of those man made ideas about His birth when they truly have nothing to do with it just because we want to do those things. Do the things, just be honest about it. We should not necessarily isolate that story of His birth to one day anyway. We don’t know the date, but we do know it was not in winter time. We serve a God who IS into the details and order. Surely, we could try and be into the details too instead of flippantly saying it doesn’t matter the day, just that He came, and we will just throw it right here when the rest of man is doing these other things that have nothing to do with Him. How does that make sense? I’ve heard all the justifications about how the candy cane is the shepherds staff and on and on. Stop it. None of it is in scripture and what IS in scripture however is Deuteronomy 12:4 “Do not worship the Lord your God in the way these pagan people worship their gods.” In the life of the believer everything we do is act of worship to Him.

If the Christmas holiday traditions bring you joy, then do them. At the same time if they don’t or there’s pain around them for you because of past memories, then don’t feel like it’s something you have to do. This is not a Biblical feast day, yet the modern church can make it feel like it is one. It’s okay not to get involved in the hustle and bustle. It;s okay not to decorate. It’s okay not to buy gifts. It’s okay not be stressed like everyone else.. It’s okay to be free and feel light. If it was truly all about Him then there would be nothing, but pure joy because He is joy, peace, goodness, and love.

A big personal beef I have with all of this is we tell our children that this is His birthday, when it’s not. Little children do not understand details like we are celebrating today, but it’s not really on this day, they are literal. So most kids think that December 25th is His birthday until they get older. We tell children so many deceptions wrapped up in this one day that it’s unnerving. Children grow up thinking because they see the tree, the gifts, the stockings, and the manger under the tree that all of those things have to do with Christ’s birth. Throw Santa Claus in there and it’s more deception. Children do not have a dividing line until much older with reality and fantasy. How can we tell them these things, give them the gospel, have them find out later that what we said wasn’t true, and expect them to trust us or the Bible? I’m also not one to do the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny, oh geez there’s another mess that the church does wrong.

What’s so beautiful and amazing is that His birth is not even the end of the story. While without the birth, our savior would not have come, what happens next is so much more exciting! He grew in stature, served, suffered, died, rose, and is coming back!!! He loves us so much that He’s coming back for us!!! It’s not over with the birth, not in the least. So what we really need is to take Christmas out of the church and take the message of Christ’s saving grace into the world because we all surely need Him!