Christmas as we celebrate it today has relatively little to do with the actual person of Christ described in the gospels. Or, better, it is an example of how we mangle Godly things. That's not to say that Christmas is a "bad" thing, although there are aspects of it that are regrettable. It just doesn't have much to do with Jesus, that's all.For many families, it really is a happy time of reunion, and the exchange of gifts can be almost magical for little kids. It is a time when we light up our neighborhoods and when we hear some beautiful Christian music played even over shopping mall PA systems. Millions go to church on Christmas eve, and once in awhile they step from a quiet dignified candle lighting ceremony into a crisp, clean winter evening. There's a lot of good in celebrating the social, secular Christmas with its real undertone of faith for many people. It is the family holiday par excellence.
Of course, there are lamentable aspects of Christmas as well, including its crass materialism and the loneliness of many who don't or can't "be home for the holidays." And family get-togethers can be tense and difficult for some, painful reminders of past hurts still unhealed. And then there's Santa Claus, the winsome false god of the secular Christmas.
Like anything else, in sum, Christmas as we celebrate it has its upside and its downside. Little of it has much to do with the Prince of Peace who died on the cross for humanity. This is especially true of our sentimental celebration of the baby Jesus, who like Santa Claus is a winsome false rendering of Christ. If we look at the story of Jesus' birth in Matthew 1-2, for example, what we find is an introduction to the profound conflict Jesus will have with the religious-political establishment, a clear foreshadowing of the cross. The story of the visit of the magi thus makes two points: Christ is king and worthy of worship and from the beginning the powers that be were intent on killing him, which they eventually did.
It is a pastor's duty at Christmas to remind the church that it is not the "baby Jesus" whom we worship. It is the man filled in some way we don't understand by God—the man who died on the cross and then lived again. Christmas at its very best does for us what the Gospel of Matthew also does: it sets our eyes on the good news of our resurrection faith. Amen.
