Monday
18th December
White
fairy lights, deep-filled mince pies, opening presents around a log fire… How
easy it is to sanitise Christmas. Even for Christians who find themselves
worshipping the baby Jesus on Christmas morning, I wonder how easily we fall
into the trap of sanitising the Christmas message.
“Who
do you say I am?”, Jesus asks his disciples (v15). The temptation at Christmas
is to see Jesus solely in his infant form: we say that he is a sign of God
being with His people. Or, we look ahead to Jesus’ familiar adult life: we say
that he is a great moral teacher. They are relatively easy tenets to accept,
even in our increasingly pluralistic and politically correct society, when we
often “have in mind...human concerns” (v23). How much harder though is it to
contemplate Jesus’ death when we are celebrating his birth? Like Peter (v22),
are we sometimes guilty of not wanting to believe that Jesus had to die? For
the Christian claim that Jesus was born in a manger in order that he would die
on a cross forces us to face up to the very reason for his death: the human
problem of sin and the necessity of a saviour sent by God. This is the raw and
naked truth of Christianity - but not such an easy version of Christmas to
commercialise.
When
we find ourselves gathered around the crib at Christmas, I pray that we “have
in mind the concerns of God” (v23). An impoverished birth heralded by angels
and shepherds is not the main event. Our worship of the baby Jesus only makes
sense because of what comes later, when this tiny individual once again finds
himself helpless and scorned by society, with arms wide open in vulnerability
and love, and nailed to a cross. Christmas is the opportunity for Christians to
be bold in their faith and shun the sanitised depiction of Jesus. For this
little baby whom we worship is the most precious gift of love from the Father
to His children: Jesus born to die so that we might live.
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