by Vance Havner
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 Geth- semane 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 occasion. The song of the angels was a gladsome chorus. Men are still sing ing about it. “Ye blind, behold your Saviour come; And leap, ye lame, for joy!” If we get no farther than merely complaining about the commercialism, the paganism and the sentimentalism that have spoiled so much of Christmas, we shall do no good. We are bearers of Good Tidings of Great Joy which shall be to all people for there was bom one day in the city of David a SAVIOUR, which is Christ the Lord. But mind you, it says there was bom 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.”
ever Jesus was bom . . . 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 effectively than Santa Claus has obscured the Incarnation. But the Incarnation is not the sole message of Christmas. Along with Emmanuel, God with us, God’s Son earned 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 forever. 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 Christmas. 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 bom 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 per sonality” 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 brother hood. 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. It does not read that “ He shall teach the people peace and good will and brotherhood,” “He shall be the Perfect Example.” That was not His main business. 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 without
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DECEMBER, 1959
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