What’s the true meaning of Christmas? How many times have you heard that being asked on talk shows, news commentaries, or the holiday movies? It happens every year, as if it’s a multiple-choice question, a matter of opinion or personal preference.
So, what is the true meaning of Christmas? Santa Claus? Brightly decorated Christmas trees? Magical snowy scenery? Exchanging gifts? Spending time with family we rarely see the rest of the year?
Maybe the meaning is more virtuous, things like generosity, love, kindness, childlike wonder. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I choose to go with not what I think, but what God thinks. We find His “opinion” stated in John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” From this we get the term “God incarnate” – God becoming a human being.
When we gaze at a nativity scene, sing carols about the birth of Jesus Christ, or send cards declaring “Jesus is the Reason for the Season,” we’re reminding ourselves and others about the true meaning of “Christ-mas.” Other trappings of the season are fun. Some are desperately needed. Heaven knows we need a lot more good will toward men (and women and children). And peace on earth seems more and more like wishful thinking. But without Jesus, there would never have been a Christmas.
As I’ve written on another platform, countless sermons and messages have already been spoken and written to convey the importance and magnitude of Christmas. What more can be added to that? Maybe what’s needed is not new information but pausing to reflect on what we already know, the impact of “‘Immanuel, which means, ‘God with us,’” as we’re told in Matthew 1:23.
The first chapter of the gospel of John presents us with amazing truths, For starters, literally, it declares that Jesus didn’t just suddenly appear 2,000 years ago – it says He was from the beginning of everything: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3).
In addition, we’re told Jesus came to give life, to rescue us from dead, “religious” works, and to bring light to the world, shining the only path to life that will not end. “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (John 1:4-5).
The Bible teaches that every man, woman and child is God’s creation, made in His image. But not all are members of His divine, eternal family. So, a third and critical truth from this brief passage is that Jesus came to offer the one and only way to become members of God’s family. That requires a unique transaction, receiving as a gift what is available only through Jesus Christ:
“Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13).
Jesus elaborated on this promise later in John’s gospel: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
We may idealize a pastoral scene with a young woman, her betrothed husband and a baby surrounded by barnyard animals, shepherds, angels and wise men. But from that humble, inconspicuous beginning came the most momentous, history-changing life and ministry of all time. One that causes each of us who follows Christ to declare with the angels, “Glory to God in the highest!” (Luke 2:14).
Merry Christmas to you. May your day and celebration be truly blessed!
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