Christmas Message – The Meaning of Christmas
24th December 2021
What is Christmas? To most people, Christmas is a mid-winter festival; a highlight in the dark days of winter. It is a time for giving gifts and greetings cards, for eating and drinking to excess, to partying and seeing family and friends. It’s a time when we put up decorations and festive lights in our homes and streets and a time when we tell our children about a fictional character calla Santa Claus. It’s a time for family traditions and sitting together around a television to watch the Queen’s Speech and Bond movies. Christmas is very commercial as well. It is a time when many businesses make a lot of money out of Christmas.
And in these days, we now have the government telling us to do certain things in order to save Christmas. It is used by the government to threaten us with the cancellation of Christmas if we don’t do what they say. They do this because they know that Christmas is an important event for most people.
Everything I have said above about Christmas is true but it’s not what it is meant to be. Christmas is meant to be a time when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. The reason why it’s not what it is meant to be is because a long time ago, during the Roman Empire, Christianity got mixed with a Pagan Winter festival which took place on the 25th December. So, the Christmas that most people know and love is a Pagan festival. Jesus was not born on the 25th December and there was no snow on the ground or a Christmas tree or anything else that we associate with Christmas. The part of Christianity that was added to the Pagan festival was the Nativity story but for most people today it’s just a nice story. They have no idea what it means or where it comes from.
So, for true Christians, it doesn’t matter if we save Christmas or not because it’s got nothing to do with Christianity. The threats of the government to obey their diktats to save Christmas mean nothing to us.
So, lets forget about this Pagan festival and give our attention to the birth of Jesus instead. Why is the birth of Jesus so important to us as Christians? When Jesus was born of a virgin named Mary about 2,000 years ago, God’s only begotten Son took on human flesh and dwelt among us. God’s Son, Jesus, came down from heaven and became like us in every away apart from sinning. He came and experienced everything that we experience apart from sin. He experienced all of our emotions, he experienced our suffering and pain, our struggles, our triumphs and heartaches. He experienced injustice and rejection. He saw our divisions, our politics, our greed, our hopes and ambitions, our weaknesses, our affections and our kinds of love. In short, by dwelling amongst us, Jesus knows what it means to be human. He is no distant, uncaring God. Instead, He is compassionate and merciful, patient and kind and above all else He loves us more than we could ever understand. That’s why the birth of Jesus is important to us and that’s what we should really be celebrating at this time of year.
Peace be with you.
Mike and Suzanne Ashton