Christmas and Its Conflict with Contentment

“What do you want for Christmas?” This is a question we’ve either asked of someone, or someone has asked of us. Perhaps both. Because Christmas is all about getting stuff we want, right? At least that’s the message we receive from advertisers and retail locations big and small, both real and virtual. 

 

We’re also told it doesn’t matter whether we can afford it or not. Just pull out a credit card. The old “buy now, pay later” strategy. Preacher Alistair Begg calls this the way to “fulfill your wanting without waiting.”

 

Of course, if you often read this blog, you might agree with my contention that Christmas isn’t about the advancement of materialism. Yes, gift giving is a time-honored part of the Christmas tradition, perhaps more in the U.S.A. than anywhere else. But when we start hearing characters in holiday movies, talk show commentators and TV commercials asking the over-used question, “What is the true meaning of Christmas?” my gut response is, “Duh!” 

 

Leave the Christ Child out of the equation and all we’ve got left is “mas.” Ironically, in Spanish the word “mas” means “more,” so perhaps that’s part of the reason that for many, Christmas turns into a quest for acquiring more and more stuff.

 

For followers of Jesus, however, the understanding of the meaning and purpose of Christmas is more straight-forward. It’s an annual celebration of a unique birth more than 2,000 years ago, when “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). If Jesus, whom believers came to recognize as “the Christ” or the promised Messiah, hadn’t been born, there would have been no need for a Christmas observance.

 

Let’s shift to the consideration of the gift-giving side of Christmas. After all, even Christ’s birth was marked with the presentation of gifts. Magi, wise men from the East who were led to seek out the fulfillment of prophecies dating back to the Old Testament days of Daniel, brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh as symbols of their reverence. 

 

We could rightly conclude that the exchange of gifts doesn’t violate any biblical principles or commandments. In fact, the Scriptures strongly endorse giving and cultivating a giving attitude. We often think of Jesus’ statement, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35), but we find admonitions for lavish, even hilarious giving throughout the Bible. 

 

I particularly like the encouragement from Proverbs 11:24-25, "One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”

 

The problem comes when we confuse strivings for more and more with the ability to feel content with whatever we already have. The apostle Paul addressed this in cautioning his disciple, Timothy, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” (1 Timothy 6:6-8).

 

Elsewhere the apostle, while addressing the willingness of believers in Philippi to support his ministry, wrote, “…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Philippians 4:11-12).

 

This is the challenge we face during this special season of the year, seeking to keep separate our wants from our needs, and to cultivate contentment in what could be termed, to borrow the words of John Steinbeck, “the winter of our discontent.”