Defending Christmas

Since the Protestant Reformation hot controversy has surrounded the observance of Christmas. We are familiar with the radical secular opposition to Christmas. It comes primarily from non-Christians. Within Christendom there is also that disagreement. For instance, John Calvin argued that Christmas was unbiblical. In 1647, Oliver Cromwell persuaded the British Parliament to make the holiday illegal, terming it both "papist and pagan." The Puritans of Colonial American were vehemently opposed to Christmas for the same reasons. It didn't help that the term Christmas was a combination of the two words "Christ's Mass." They got hung up on the word "Mass." Even Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher declared in 1871, "We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas." This antagonism continues to the present. In a debate on WorldMag.com (late November 2005) one guy expressed his opinion with this remark, "If I have this right, Dec 25 was the Greek's day to celebrate the birthday of their head-honcho god Zeus and then when the Romans won the empire they changed Dec 25 to celebrate the Roman's number one god, Jupiter's birthday. When the Christians took over the empire, they adopted December 25 as Jesus' birthday." Another fellow said, "I am considering ending my practice of celebrating Christmas... My research shows that this holiday has pagan origins and things like trees, poinsettias, and especially the date of Dec. 25 are all pagan-based."

The criticism of Christmas trees rests on Jeremiah 10:2-4. Jeremiah says, "Do not learn the way of the Gentiles... For the customs of the peoples are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers So that it will not topple." Jeremiah is emphatic. If the pagans set up trees in their mid-winter feasts how can Christians follow such a tainted tradition?

It is furthermore asserted that Christmas was never commanded in Scripture, and even if it was, no one is sure of the actual date of Christ's birth. It was unlikely that shepherds would have been outside on a cold wintry evening tending their sheep. So, why celebrate a feast absent from the Bible, of pagan origins, and not even dated accurately? Moreover, the gaudy advertising, the Santa Clauses, the wreathes, the red and green colors, and parties, isn't all that merely an excuse for commercialism, and indulgence in the pleasures of the flesh?

How do we respond to these challenges? It is good to have answers and a clear conscience. The historic Church has determined that the symbols and trappings of Christmas are in fact Christ-centered, pleasing to God, and a blessing to man. What is the biblical evidence and rationale for this? These are the issues we want to examine on this Christmas Day.

First of all, Scripture permits the Church to create voluntary feasts and holidays. Jesus Christ Himself attended feasts that were not commanded in Scripture. In John 10:22 it says, "Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch..." What was this Feast of Dedication? The Old Testament established the Feast of Tabernacles, the Day of Atonement, and the Passover. But there is nothing written about the Feast of Dedication. The Feast of Dedication is more commonly known today as Hanukkah. Jews will celebrate it tomorrow with Menorahs, a Hebrew liturgy, and gift-giving. Hanukkah came about in the time of the Maccabees, a couple hundred years before Christ. It celebrated the restoration of the Temple after the abomination of desolation perpetrated by Antiochus Epiphanes. This conqueror had captured Judea, and to insult the Jews, he slaughtered pigs on the altar. The Maccabees were a family of generals who took up arms and ran Antiochus and his army out of Jerusalem. They reconsecrated the temple and restored the proper sacrifices. The Old Testament Church decided to memorialize this event with a feast. They designed symbols and rituals that turned into a full-blown annual ceremony, and Jesus honored this tradition by His attendance. On the day of Hanukkah Jesus called attention to Himself as the true Temple, while standing in Solomon's Porch, at the entrance of the Temple itself. Jesus' participation in the Feast of Dedication validates the principle that the Church has permission to develop holy days and feasts. The Church calendar rests on this assumption, and that is why we have the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity.

Next, the New Testament itself gives detailed prominence to the nativity of Christ. The gospel narratives are so beautifully told, and carefully chronicled that an annual feast seems natural. Because Augustus Caesar decreed an empire wide census, Joseph and Mary were forced to go to Bethlehem. The little town of Bethlehem was so crowded that the couple ended up in a stable. That night, the Virgin Mary brought forth her first-born son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger. A donkey could have been in this humble place, as well as cattle and sheep among the pungent barnyard odors.

In the nearby country, there were shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. All of a sudden, the glory of the Lord was revealed to them as promised by the prophet Isaiah (Is. 40:5). Dazzling light illumined field and sky. From out of the brilliance an angel appeared and spoke to the shepherds: "Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger" (Luke 2:10 ff.). The proclamation of the one angel caused the other angels to sing out, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" The shepherds responded to this show by getting up and running to town. When they saw Mary and Joseph and the Child they glorified and praised God for all the things that they had heard and seen. How could they not praise the Lord? It was the beginning of a new era in human history. Jesus' life, death and resurrection would bring light, love and hope to a dark and dying world. Indeed He would save the creation. Now if the New Testament writers report the birthday in such clear detail there must be something important about it and worthy of our celebration. Scripture does not command birthday parties, but it does smile on them (Job 1:5), and whose birthday is more deserving of observance than that of our Savior?

Christmas also brings attention to the incarnation. The incarnation means that God became flesh. God came down from Heaven to take on humanity. The Church has always had to defend the doctrine of the incarnation against people who try to downplay Jesus' humanity. The Gnostics held that the material, physical creation was inferior to invisible spiritual reality. So they minimized the flesh and blood nature of Christ. The docetists were the radical Gnostics. They totally rejected the physicality of the Savior. They wanted to turn Jesus into a disembodied spirit. These Gnostic impulses have always hounded the Church. Thus, setting aside a special time of the year to highlight the incarnation serves as a guard against this heresy.

What about commercialism? It is possible that Gnostic and Docetist notions lie behind complaints about the commercialization of Christmas. Commercialism has to do with commerce, with business, the buying and selling of goods and services. Sincere Christians fume that Christmas promotes commercialism. What a horrible thing! We supposedly need to get back to the "real meaning" of Christmas. Too much time and money is spent on shopping, putting up decorations, consuming festive food and drink, and so on, while the true spirit of Christmas gets left behind. We need to get back to meditating on Christ, goes the argument; as if we were disembodied spirits with no other purpose than to sit around and think orthodox thoughts.

A silent contemplation of Christ's birth never was the essence of Christmas. There has always been a commercial component. The Wise Men went Christmas shopping. Gold doesn't grow on trees, and frankincense and myrrh require human labor to produce. Merchants have been capitalizing on the holiday from the outset.

Moreover, the Bible refers to Christ as the Sun of Righteousness in Malachi 4:2. Sun spelled with a u. A celebration of the birth of the Redeemer at the winter solstice, the darkest and coldest time of the year, is biblically appropriate. Around Dec. 21, the darkness in the Northern hemisphere reaches its most dominant point. Thereafter the days will get longer, the Sun will grow, His kingdom will expand, shining ever brighter. Celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25 has pagan origins, but so what. That was then. Those connections disappeared over a thousand years ago. God created time. The days and years belong to Him. The Bible tells us to "redeem the time," and that is what the Church did with Dec. 25. It signifies the Savior's birth "in the bleak midwinter," the turning point of history from darkness to light, from coldness to warmth. [I'm indebted to James Jordan, David Chilton, and Michael Medved for many of these insights.]

What about Christmas trees? Is there biblical warrant for placing Christmas trees in our homes and churches? Yes, the condemnation of trees by Jeremiah could not have referred specifically to Christmas trees as we know them. It was written several hundred years before Christ's birth. Besides that, in the tabernacle, there was an almond tree (Exodus 25:31; 1 Kings 6). Later on when Solomon constructed the temple, palm trees frescoed the wall. God was the One who ordered those trees in His house of worship.

Christ is symbolized in Scripture as the Tree of Life (Rev. 22). The evergreen tree points to Jesus as the source of eternal life. In Heaven, the Tree of Life bears twelve fruits, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Christmas tree balls are simply stylized fruit, and most of the other decorations are stylized forms of other kinds of food. Icicles speak of the winter season. The sparkling character of certain lights and hangings represent gemstones, which God liberally placed in and around the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:11: Ez. 28:13). If God so decorated His house, both in the world and in His more specialized houses of worship, so can we. We are images of God. Our creativity reflects a likeness that we have to God, and it is appropriate that our creativity take a multitude of beautiful forms during the Christmas season. The Christian can rest assured that the majority of the symbols and traditions of Christmas are splendid things. It is right to celebrate the birthday of the Lord, even though we are unsure of its actual date.

However, the Santa Claus stuff can go too far. St. Nicholas, the 4^th century bishop, is a good guy to honor if we recognize his generosity and try to emulate that. Some people put Santa ahead of Jesus and ascribe to him divine-like omniscience, knowing who is naughty and nice, and omnipresence, his sleigh capable of visiting every house on Christmas Eve. On the other hand, much of this Santa Claus stuff is merely fun for kids and we can come off as killjoys if we suppress it.

What about gift-giving? It is a reflection of God's grace. Since Christians have been the beneficiaries of God's redeeming grace, and providential goodness, generosity is one way they respond. God gives gifts; and we give gifts. Overindulgence in eating and drinking is a temptation, and we need to exercise moderation in our merrymaking, but the Bible also speaks of Heaven as a banquet. The pleasures and feasting we enjoy on earth are foretastes of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in the New Heavens and New Earth.

The message of Christmas is the Gospel. And the gospel is based on the conviction that, due to sin, an unbridgeable gulf separates God and man. Only God can bridge that awful gulf. The Bible declares that that gulf was bridged by the incarnation of God Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to take our place and through the shedding of His blood redeem us from our sins. The scope of this redemption involving humanity and creation is so wonderful it is worthy of a wide range of symbols, rituals, traditions and art in order to celebrate it.

So deck the halls with boughs of holly. Appreciate the symbols and relive the rituals that beautify the truth of God's Son becoming man to redeem us. The birth of the Savior transforms everything. So it deserves to be celebrated privately in our homes and publicly in our society. Culture is nothing more than the incarnation of religion, and few things are as beautiful as a culture saturated with the clothing and cuisine, the sights and sounds, the smells and bells of Christmas. Our lives are enriched when we honor the pivotal event in earth's history with cooking and feasting, giving and receiving, red and green, cards and carols, worship and wonder, joy and gratitude.

Let us pray.