Christmas isn’t over yet. True, the presents have been opened, all but a few family gatherings have come and gone. Our friends with Ukrainian background have yet to celebrate Ukranian Christmas on January 6th, but that’s not quite the same thing. No, even for us in the Western tradition, Christmas isn’t over yet, because there’s still a lot for us to consider about the birth of our Lord Jesus.
Today we have heard through the readings and carols the story of God’s salvation, sent through Jesus Christ our Lord–the initial promise made to Adam and Eve after their fall into sin; the promise given again thousands of years later to Abraham; the promise carried on through the prophets; and the promise revealed on Christmas Day to the shepherds, on Epiphany to the wise men.
In some ways, it’s hard to believe that a tiny baby in a manger could possibly be the Saviour of the whole world. Babies are small. They need a lot of help, they rely heavily on their mother and father to make it through to being children and teenagers and adults.
And that’s why it’s important that we have this longer period of Christmas, too. It wasn’t just one day that Jesus was born and then He magically turned 12 and then 30 without all the in-between stages. Jesus is true God, to be sure, as our final reading, John 1, notes: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:1, 14a) Yet it’s that becoming flesh that we truly celebrate this season. Jesus is true God, but, for us and for our salvation, He humbled Himself and became a true man, too. A real one. 10 fingers, 10 toes, 2 eyes, 2 ears, a mouth, a nose, a brain, a nervous system, skin, muscles, hair, vital organs, etc. Jesus was every inch a human, every inch a baby boy. No doubt the Virgin Mary counted Jesus’ fingers and toes like all mothers do, no doubt the Virgin Mary woke up two and three times a night to feed Jesus. No doubt Joseph celebrated with his buddies his new boy (even though Joseph knew he was only the foster father, he also knew what the angel told him was true).
Today’s Gospel, which wasn’t part of our special service, points out that there was hardship and trouble associated with that first Christmas as well. Shortly after the wise men left, we hear,
“Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’ Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.’ But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.’ And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: ‘He shall be called a Nazarene.’” (Matthew 2:13-23 ESV)
The birth of Jesus cost the life of a number of babies in Bethlehem because of crazy old King Herod, who was so jealous for his crown he routinely killed off people of whom he was suspicious. It cost Joseph and Mary their security of the routine they had settled into with their baby boy. Off to Egypt they went, echoing the voyage of another Joseph two thousand years earlier. Then back home, but not to Bethlehem, the historic home of the king, the town of David, but to Nazareth, an industrious if unimportant village in the booming area of Galilee, an area where Romans and Jews rubbed shoulders regularly.
The birth of Jesus comes with its cost for us as well. Not the credit card bills or the depleted bank balances. That’s not the cost of following Jesus so much as the cost of following society’s expectations for the holiday season. The cost of following Christ is the cost of knowing that the world and all its trappings are no longer to be our goal. It is the cost of knowing that the reason this baby is in the manger, the reason this baby was born in the first place, was in order for Him to die.
That was the great goal, the end to which the Christmas story points. Looming behind the cradle is the shadow of the Cross. There, among the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, lingers the smell of sin and the need for a Saviour. There, in that crib, lies the only hope for sinners like you and me, for people who have broken God’s law in a thousand ways and could never in a million years start to repay our debt to God.
We need Christmas because it points to Good Friday and Easter. The world around us loves to celebrate the birth of the baby, but you don’t hear rousing choruses of songs dedicated to Jesus’ death and resurrection around Easter on every radio station. You don’t see Easter movies on every channel. It’s easy to celebrate a birth, but much harder to rejoice on a death–except when you know that the death is precisely your only hope of life.
That’s the hope at the heart of the Christian faith, the all-too-unspoken kernel of truth of the Christmas story. We sang “What Child Is This” earlier, and in the second verse, the refrain tells us of why this baby Jesus is here: “Nails, spear, shall pierce Him through, the Cross be borne for me, for you”–a line which is missing from almost every professional recording of this song because it is uncomfortable to say. But it is the truth. This tiny baby, so peacefully lying in the manger, was born to endure the hard wood of the cross for us. This tiny baby, sleeping on the hay, was born to die. That’s how the serpent’s head gets crushed; that’s how all nations are blessed through Abraham’s descendant.
And because He died, we live; because He rose from death, we will live forever! Christmas isn’t over yet because it needs to be completed in Good Friday and Easter. Thanks be to God for sending this Baby Jesus on Christmas to be the Saviour of us all in Good Friday and Easter! Amen.
Last updated December 2007 by the webmaster.