remember His death and we do this in the Lord’s Supper. Christmas as a religious festival probably got started after the “ conversion” of Constantine, that calamity from which we have never recovered. Multi tudes of heathen professed to become Christians and joined the church. Along with them they brought the luggage of their old life including most of the para phernalia with which we observe Christmas. Of course we all know that we have to go far afield from the New Testament to find Santa Claus, Christmas trees, Yule logs, lighted tapers and other pagan trappings. The secular world today brazenly celebrates Christmas with out Christ and even the church loses Him often in a jungle o f heathenism which it inherited from the un godly in a drive for more church-members. We paid dearly for what Constantine brought us and nothing cost us more than when we borrowed from the devil the stage setting in which to celebrate the birth of our Lord. Even when we get around to the star of Bethlehem, the shepherds, the Magi, and the manger, we sometimes miss the point in what amounts to mere SENTIMEN TALISM. Witness the strange sermons about peace on earth, good will to men. Jesus who came to teach us brotherhood, Jesus the Example, Jesus whose teachings in the Sermon on the Mount answer all our problems— thus far they get and no farther. But if that is all His birth brought to us, we are of all men most miser able. Whenever Jesus was born . . . and it may have been nowhere near Christmas . . . He came to do a vastly greater thing than to preach the Sermon on the Mount or live a perfect life. He came, not just to live, but to live and die and to live again. Of course Easter wears perhaps even more of the garments of paganism than Christmas; and bunny rabbits, colored eggs and spring bonnets have hidden the Resurrection even more effectually than Santa Claus has obscured the Incar nation. But the Incarnation is not the sole message of Christmas. Along with Emmanuel, God with us, God’s Son carried another name. “ Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” That was His mission, to deal with sin once and for ever. Christmas points not only to a manger but to a cross. You do not hear much about that at Christmas time. It is foolishness to this world. You will hear a lot about peace on earth and good will but not about the real reason why God gave His Son. There is something subtle there that shows up more times than at Christ mas. People are willing to have you talk about peace and joy, the Golden Rule and the Sermon on the Mount. They are willing to accept the benefits of the cross but they are not willing to accept the Cross. Christmas without Calvary! Tell them why He was born and they say you are getting off into theology. Some poor souls even say, “ Give us the simple gospel” who never have discovered that the gospel is “ Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” Just as at Easter we wander off into “ immortality of the soul” and “ survival of personality” and totally miss the resurrection of the body, so at Christmas we dodge the cross in a lot of lavender-and- rose-water sentimentalism about peace and brotherhood. Of course it is the age-old ailment of the human heart. Men will talk about anything but their actual
trouble. The ugly sin question comes up and who wants to hear about sin at Christmas time? But the Bethlehem Babe was given His name Jesus because He was to be the Saviour from sin. Tt does not read that “ He shall teach the people peace and good will and brotherhood,” “ He shall preach the Sermon on the Mount,” “ He shall be the Perfect Example.” That was not His main busi ness. He came to save us from our sins because unless something is done about that, Christ the Teacher, the Preacher, the Example, will avail us nothing. We have too many dear souls now talking about peace and good will who are still in their sins. It is shameful to face church congregations on Christmas, many of whom will not return until Easter, and give them Christmas with out Calvary. What goes for the Christmas spirit is all too often a happy holiday mood of human cheerfulness, a hollow and pitiful mockery of the joy of the Lord. Any old sinner can be worked up into a religious frame around the twenty-fifth of December and mistake the whole thing for spiritual reality. No matter where you start thinking about Jesus, if you follow through, you are coming to a cross and an open grave. You are headed for a crown of thorns and Gethsemane and a gory, bleeding sacrifice for sin. For that was the purpose of His coming. It is not popular these days. It never will be. When Simeon blessed the baby Jesus in the Temple he said, “ This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be SPOKEN AGAINST” (Luke 2:34). When Paul arrived in Rome; his hearers said, “ As concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is SPOKEN AGAINST” (Acts 28: 22). The Saviour and the saints are unpopular, you will observe. If the preaching of the Cross is to the world foolishness, quite naturally the people of the Cross will be to the world fools. But just the same we ought to make sure that at Christmas time we see to it. that the Manger points to the Cross. That does not mean that Christmas for the Christian is a sad and solemn matter or that we saints are to sit around in a dour sanctimoniousness grumbling at the way Christmas is celebrated. There is no joy on earth like the joy that grows out of the true message of Christmas. Our Lord’s intent was that His joy might remain in us and .that our joy might be full. The gospel is good news. The birth of our Lord was a joyous occa sion. The song of the angels was a gladsome chorus. Men are still singing about it. “ Ye blind, behold your Saviour come; And leap, ye lame, for jo y !” If we get no farther than merely complaining about the commercialism, the paganism and the sentimen talism that have spoiled so much of Christmas, we shall be no good. We are bearers of Good Tidings of Great Joy which shall be to all people for there was born one day in the city of David a SAVIOUR, which is Christ the Lord. But mind you, it says there was born a SAVIOUR. We hear much of “ putting Christ in Christmas” and surely He needs to be given His rightful place. But the Christ of Christmas is not only the Babe of the Manger but the Saviour of Calvary and the Victor of the Empty Tomb. Let us proclaim Him for all that He is, Lord, Saviour, Messiah. And let us declare to all men, “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
DECEMBER, 1964
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