Define: Christmas

It’s Christmas Eve. School has finished for 2009, last minute shopping is being done, the snow has pretty much melted down here in Kent and Christmas day is only a matter of hours away. The thing is: what is Christmas really about? Most people will mutter something about a baby born in a stable or the importance of family but Christmas is so much more than that.

It really annoys me how people go to church once a year at Christmas and then label themselves ‘Christian’. Being a Christian is more than a label, it’s a way of life. Furthermore, the Christmas message is more than a nice little story about a newborn baby. Most people know how the Christmas ‘story’ goes: a virgin girl called Mary gets pregnant, Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem, there’s no room in any of the inns so the baby gets born in a stable. This baby is called Jesus and is so special he is visited by three wise men who give him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. He is also visited by some shepherds who were told about his birth by some angels. However, have you ever though about why this story is so significant?

Why did this baby come? This baby is Jesus, the son of God, who grew up to be the very same Jesus who died on a cross. He came into this world to live a perfect life – something we cannot do – and then receive the punishment that we deserve for our sins. We have broken God’s law – each one of us – and we deserve to be punished. However, Jesus was born so that we don’t have to receive that punishment; he lived the life that we could never live. If we trust in him and live our lives for him, his sacrifice was for us. This very same saviour is the one in the Christmas ‘story’, welcomed into the world in a stable: one of the lowest placed to be born.

Have you ever thought why the angels told shepherds about the birth of such an important saviour? Shepherds aren’t the most important of people now and they were even more insignificant back then yet God chose to tell them above any king or rich, important ruler. God is loving and wants to give this opportunity to those who don’t deserve it. We have chosen to turn away from God, live our own lives in the way that we want and totally ignore his teaching. Are we willing to turn from this way and welcome Jesus as the shepherds did?

Jesus is not just a baby in a story. He is God who came into this world as a human. He gave up his rights as ruler over all; he rejected his power and authority to be born in a stable and save sinners such as us. I am going to church tomorrow but it’s not that which makes me a Christian; I’m not perfect, in fact I’m always doing wrong things, but I have put my trust in Jesus who came down to take the punishment for my disobedience in my place and I try and live my life in light of that fact. Is the Christmas message just another ‘religious story’ to you or have you thought about what it really means and why so many people remember it?