The Christmas story through the eyes of Easter

In the beginning was the word, and the word was God. That is a paraphrase of John 1:1, which the writer uses to introduce the Christmas story.  God became flesh and lived on the earth. This was a  radical thought in those days, and it is now.  The synoptic gospels - or the other three - tell a more traditional story of the birth of Christ. John jumps right to the spiritual meaning.

This is perhaps a unique thing in Christianity, that God would actually come to earth and live as a human being. That is radical enough, but he also came to die to pay the penalty for our sins.

The meaning of Jesus was this - "In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind."

In the very beginning, in the Adam and Eve story, sin entered the world. Human beings rebelled. Some call this original sin. We are not guilty of original sin, that is not what makes us guilty. It is because we do the same things they did. Original sin just means where it originated. 

But God loved his creation.

There's some deep mystery here, but in some way, God wanted to have a relationship with his creation. He set about pursuing us. The scripture says we love God because he first loved us. It also says, while we were dead in our sins, he made us alive together with Christs.

Constantly people have tried to find a way to get to god, to have a relationship that way. This is the basis of religion - seeking God.

There were lots of efforts to make us "good," or to make us acceptable to God.

The radical idea of God was to come to earth in human form.  Some say he came to show us how to live, but I've never really thought that was true. 

Instead, I think the reason God came to earth as a human was to be the ultimate sacrifice. The Reason Jesus was born was Easter.
Jesus had to be both God and Man, and doing this in some miraculous way, makes this happen. Jesus gets his human origin from Mary and his heavenly origin from God himself.

The story in the synoptic gospels explains how this came about. The virgin birth takes on new meaning when we think of God arriving in human form. Some people try to explain this away, and even point out that in the ancient prophecies, the word "virgin" can be translated "young woman." Granted, but if that were the case, why would there be a prophecy about a young woman having a baby. That happens a lot all around the world every day, so it doesn't make much sense as a prophecy if just a young woman is all that is in mind.

Rather the virgin birth matters more on the theological level than even the physical. In terms of the physical world, it was a miracle. 

Theologically it is how we get the idea that Jesus was both fully God and fully man at the same time. In order for the sacrifice to do what was intended, it was essential that Jesus be both God and man. For that to happen, he had to be born of a virgin.

The virgin birth becomes a key part of Christian theology.

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Christmas has always been controversial

Some say there is a war on Christmas, but really, there has always been controversy surrounding this holiday. It has its roots deep in paganism, and has always had a secular aspect.

It is the celebration of the birth of Christ for Christians today, but even the idea of celebrating a birthday of any kind is a pagan – or secular – idea. In ancient times only rulers and the very wealthy celebrated birthdays, and it was seen as a very self glorifying thing, not something a modest religious person would do. It has been banned at various times in Christian circles because of its worldly beginnings and secular aspects.

In the Americas it was flatly rejected and condemned by the Puritans because of its pagan origin, and because it was often associated with drunken parties.

It did finally catch on, but I think its history is part of the reason it is controversial. It has gained acceptance in religious circles, and that may be why some people see the secular aspects as an attack on Christmas.

Even today there are religious people who object to the idea of celebrating Christmas, usually because of its pagan origins. But I do not want to be making any kind of judgments. I still say people should do what they want and be tolerant of those that do differently, which is more biblical attitude to have.

The bible makes no mention of when Jesus was born, but it does give us a couple of clues. It says shepherds were watching their flocks by night, which means it was a time of year when there was plenty of grass and light. Certainly not the middle of winter, and more likely late spring when days are longer.

Dec. 25 was chosen, not because anyone thought that was the real day, but because it was a time of celebration already in place. The Romans celebrated their Gods in a mid-winter feast in late December. The Pagans (religions in Europe before Christianity arrived) also celebrated a mid-winter holiday in late December. The idea of co-opting that into celebrating the Birth of Christ first came about in the fourth century and was more related to the Roman celebrations.

There was not a lot of interest in Christmas in the “dark ages” but it did catch on again later in Europe, and that is where the pagan holiday was adopted.

In the middle ages people went to church on Christmas morning, and in the afternoon had a big party with lots of carousing and partying. Even then people decried the commercialization of the holiday.

Nothing new under the sun.

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