Babies are something special. I can never forget what it was like to see my two girls at their birth. That is a feeling and experience that nothing else can quite match — unless it is the birth of grandchildren. There is a special feeling each time I visit new parents in the hospital. There is wonderful warmth each time I baptize a young child. There is just something captivating about a new life. The innocence and dependence of that little young life strikes at our emotions. We look at their small fingers. We laugh as they yawn. We are amazed as they try to walk, and we are so proud of their first spoken word. Let’s face it, babies do strange things to us. It’s amazing! You can take a perfectly mature adult and put them in front of a baby and they will do very unusual things and become very strange. They begin to talk silly. They will twist their faces into all sorts of contortions and make faces at that baby — faces they would never make to another adult — just to try to get that baby to look at them and smile. We’re hooked on babies.
Perhaps that is one of the reasons that Christmas affects us the way it does. The cuteness of a new baby. The story of shepherds and wise men, stars and angels all add a special appeal to Christmas. The fascination with birth, fresh new life, innocence, and a little human being that is almost toy-like is all so marvelous. There are promises from God. Hope is in the air and there are messages of joy.
But there is mystery here as well — baffling mystery. I cannot imagine what it meant for the eternal God, who created the cosmos and all the life which is in it, to become a helpless infant. It stretches the mind beyond its limits. It is easier for us to think of a child of promise in the cradle than it is for us to imagine the Christ, who is God and rules in heaven, being born into the world. We understand babies, but we do not understand God becoming a baby. We like cute, but we avoid profound mystery. We prefer to think of the crib rather than the cross. The world likes to think about a child born on earth rather than Christ’s return to earth. Somehow, his helplessness appeals to us more than his omnipotence and Deity.
It is good to enjoy the charm of Christmas, but we also have to grow up to understand the mystery of Christmas. We have to mature and understand the importance of what was really going on. We have to allow Christ to grow up as well. He cannot stay forever a baby. So, the first point is that we need to grow up in our faith so that: We realize who Christ is. The Bible encourages us to “in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). Christmas is a wonderful thing. It is a good beginning. But at some point in time we have to let Jesus out of the cradle. We have to allow him to grow up, and we must grow up with him. We have to go from thinking of him as a baby and understand that he is God who came and wrapped himself in human flesh for a time. We have to go from wonder to worship. We have to understand that there is more to the story than a baby in the hay. In that cradle lay the hope of the ages. In that stall was the salvation of the world. The story about a child being born is true and it is wonderful, but we have to go beyond being charmed by it and be changed by it. We have to see beyond the tradition and be transformed. We have to go beyond the admiration of a child to the adoration of a Savior. You do not truly understand Christmas until you find yourself on your knees in worship. If Christmas was only a baby being born, there is the temporary joy of a new birth, but if it was God coming to the world then it is an everlasting joy that does not fade with the passing of time. As the Bible says, we have “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4). This, then, is truly Good News. It is real hope, and life can be eternally different.
The prophets claimed that a child would be born to save the world. They said he would bear the stamp and very image of God. They called him Emmanuel — God with us. Only God is to be worshiped. But even as an infant, Jesus was worshiped. The shepherds came and they worshiped, for angels from heaven came and told them of the child who had come from heaven. The wise men came, bowing and worshiping, and bringing offerings to the true King to whom heaven had guided them.
Throughout Christ’s life we see him accepting worship from people. We see men and women constantly kneeling before him: A cleansed leper (Matthew 8:2), a ruler of the synagogue (Matthew 9:18), a man whose sight was restored (John 9:38), and even a demon possessed man (Mark 5:6). The other people of the Bible would never accept someone worshiping them. When Paul and Barnabas were in the region of Galatia, he healed a man, by the power of God, whom everyone knew had been lame from birth. When the people saw what Paul had done, they shouted, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” Then they began to offer sacrifices to Paul. But Paul tore his clothes in anguish and rushed out into the crowd to stop them saying, “Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men.” (Acts 14:8-18).
But Jesus never refused worship. The night Jesus walked on the water through the storm and got into the boat of the disciples, they fell at his feet worshiping him saying, “Truly you are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:33). Jesus accepted their worship. After the Resurrection Jesus appeared to the women who had gone to the tomb. When thy recognized him they held his feet and worshiped him (Matthew 28:9). At the Ascension, as Jesus was being taken to heaven, he allowed the disciples to worship him (Luke 24:52). Now the point is that either Jesus had tremendous ego needs, or he was indeed God who was not only worthy of worship but should be worshiped by his creation. Jesus was more than a child, and we need to allow him to come out of the cradle. But neither was he just a great man — he was God, and only God deserves worship. He is indeed worthy of our worship and praise, for he is the God who came to earth and paid the ultimate sacrifice that our sins might be forgiven.
But, secondly, we need to grow up in our faith so that: We understand how God works. Time magazine chose as their Man of the Year for 1991, Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, the Cable News Network. In the January 6, 1992 article, they told of all the astounding things he had accomplished, as well as the story of his life. Turner’s father was a very successful businessman who reached his goals of making millions of dollars, owning a yacht and living on a plantation by the age of 50. But in spite of reaching his goals, he committed suicide at 53-years-of-age. When Ted Turner reached 53, he became obsessed wondering if he would die tragically as his father had. He is haunted by what he calls his greatest fear — the fear of death. Turner’s life has been a confusing mix of stupendous business successes and personal failures. He has endured endless psychiatric counseling and lives on psychotropic medications. His marriage to Jane Fonda has ended as his several other marriages have. But many people do not realize that Ted Turner was once a devout Christian and, according to the Time article, had planned on becoming a missionary when he was 17. But when he was 20, he watched his sister Mary Jane die from a crippling form of lupus, a disease in which the body turns on itself. Turner says that watching his sister go through that ordeal killed his faith in God. Now he is almost as fervently anti-God as he once was passionate for God. He has rejected the Ten Commandments and replaced them with what he calls the Ted Commandments.
But Turner’s rejection of God is more a rejection of his father who, when he was in the home, was overbearing and extremely demanding. He never seemed to be able to please his father who was unpredictable and capricious. Somehow those childhood feelings crossed over into his understanding of God and how he works. Through his sister’s death he began to resent God for seeming distant and unconcerned. Some speculate that Jane Fonda’s recent participation in church and a small group Bible study contributed to their breakup. He never grew beyond his childhood understanding of who God is. Jesus never got out of the cradle in his life. Like the people in Nazareth, he took offense at Jesus.
When we come to God we have to understand that he is like no other and that he is beyond our control. We can fight God or surrender to God. When we fight with God we always lose, but when we surrender to God we always end up the winner. We can demand that God do things our way, or we can accept his ways knowing that Jesus Christ can even redeem our suffering. But if we are going to understand God, we cannot stay at a childish place in our faith. We must grow up in our understanding of how God works. The Bible says, “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life” (Jude 1:20-21).
The third point is that we need to grow up in our faith so that: We know what God requires. If Christ is going to come out of the cradle and into your life then you have to understand that God does not merely ask for a polite nod on Sundays. His demands are total. He does not a ask for a place in your life; he asks for your entire life. However, in our culture, we are doing our best to exclude him from as much of our world as possible.
Once again this year the law suits are being filed by those who want all signs and symbols of religious significance removed from the public and government properties across the nation. So the stables on many courthouse lawns are missing this season. At the time of Jesus’ birth there was no room for him in the Inn; today we will not even allow him in the stable. The pagans want our holiday without realizing it is a holy day. They want the cuteness of Christmas without the Christ of Christmas. They want the baby, but not the King. They love the gifts of men, but reject the Gift of God. They will accept the tinsel but not the truth. They want the wonder of the season without the worship of the Savior.
It is politically incorrect to say “Merry Christmas” now, so we say “Seasons Greetings,” or “Happy Holidays.” In fact, I noticed that the post office stamp on the envelopes this year says, “Happy WHO-lidays!” It seems that the Grinch really has stolen Christmas and we don’t know “WHO” this holiday is about. We are living in Whoville, and Christ has become the ghost of Christmas past. I found it interesting that on several of our cards that message was printed across a stamp with a painting of Mary and the infant Jesus. WHO-liday indeed! But God requires that we not only understand whose holiday it is, but that we also allow the King who was born to be King of our lives. When Jesus came he laid claim to the world and our lives as well.
We love the fact that Jesus’ birth has given us a season of gift-giving, feasting, and celebration, but the world has failed to recognize that it is a season of worship. This is a time to recognize what God has really done and who Christ really is. In many stores at this time of year you can see a lot of Christmas decorations without ever having the slightest clue that the season has anything to do with Christ. Many homes across the nation will celebrate Christmas tomorrow without any mention or love for Christ. For others there is still a sentimental feeling for the Madonna and Child. But for this season to mean what it is supposed to mean, we have to go beyond decorations to dedication, beyond sentiment to surrender — surrender to the God who has chosen come to our world. If he is not Emmanuel, then our worship is idolatry. But if he is who he claims to be, then he deserves our praise, our worship, our obedience, our all. The world always tries to take the sacred and make it profane. It sees the humanity of Christ, but fails to accept his deity. It wants to keep Christ in the cradle.
Because of that all important fact, we somehow have to get beyond the trimming and traditions and get back to the truth and reality of the season. Somehow we have to go beyond a counterfeit Christmas and get Christ out of the stable and into our hearts. We have to get him out of the cradle and onto the throne. We have to go from thinking of him as cute to thinking of him as King. Christmas is more than being charmed by a child, it’s real meaning is in saying, “Yes” to God.
Candy Chand tells of her son’s Christmas play at North Country Elementary School in Antelope, California. Her son was in kindergarten and was excited about Christmas. For weeks he had been memorizing songs for the school’s “Winter Pageant.” (It would have been inappropriate to call it a “Christmas Play.”) Mrs. Chand went to the dress rehearsal in the morning and sat on the floor with the other parents. Finally, the students were led into the room, and each group rose at their appointed time to perform their song. Because of how conscious the school was of avoiding any mention of the real meaning of Christmas, she only expected songs about reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer. But when her son’s class rose to sing, she was surprised to see that their song was entitled “Christmas Love.” Her son Nicholas was aglow, as was his classmates who were outfitted with fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright snow caps on their heads. The children in the front row held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song. As the class sang “C is for Christmas,” a child would hold up the letter “C.” Then, “H is for Happy,” and so on, until each child had held up his or her letter to complete the message of “Christmas Love.” Everything was going smoothly until a shy little girl in the front row held her letter upside down. Instead of holding up her “M,” she was holding it so that it appeared to be a “W.” The adults smiled and the children from the other classes began to snicker. She had no idea why they were looking at her so intently and smiling, so she stood tall and proudly displayed her “W.” The teachers tried to shush the children, but the laughter continued until the last letter was raised. Then a hush came over the audience, and people stared in wonder as they saw the sign which, instead of “Christmas Love,” now read: “Christ was Love.” There in that moment, the Christ of Christmas made his message known. Out of the chaos and secularization of his birth, Christ the King came out of the cradle to announce the reason he came.
Have no fear. All is well, for all the unbelief in the world cannot stop the message that the God of love has come to us at Christmas — our Emmanuel.
Rodney J. Buchanan
December 24, 2000
