From X-mas to Christmas | Part One: Why We Celebrate

Even though the Christmas season has not yet begun, the holiday ads are already flooding the airwaves.  Businesses across the nation are looking forward to the extra revenue especially this year with its economic crisis.  The winter holiday has become not only a celebration for Christianity, but also one of four national holidays, the others being Thanksgiving, Independence Day and the Super Bowl.

This became clear when Lori Littman Brown, lobbyist with the Secular Coalition of America, appeared on the “Colbert Report” and explained the secularization of the holiday in America:

“In fact, Christmas is now a secular holiday…which means it’s no longer just about a religious thing, it’s a secular thing and we can all have parties and enjoy it.”

With Santa and his reindeer intruding upon something much more significant, only a cross-centered, biblical understanding of Christmas can keep it from being mired in sin.  December 25 was around long before Word-Faith churches made their way onto the national stage, and this day is not merely about receiving the fruits of a prosperity gospel.  It is about celebrating the most important birth of all time-the birth of Jesus Christ.

Among the many festivities around Christmas time, one of the most Christocentric activities is the performance of George Friedric Handel’s “Messiah.”  While people gather in malls to sit on the laps of many Santas, churches, choirs and families open old song sheets and sing aloud the 1741 oratorio.  Though the piece focuses on the entire life of Jesus, this oratorio captures what scripture says about the Savior so eloquently that its nativity movements make it an adopted Christmas song.

Handel drew from Isaiah 9:6-7 for one of the more famous sections of “Messiah.”  The scripture, as is sung in the piece reads:

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon His shoulders.  His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

 This scripture, prophesying the coming Davidic King, should draw us back to the cross.  The significance of what God announces to the Judahites through the prophet Isaiah is self-evident in the name of this child:

1.      Wonderful Counselor

Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  During the time in which Jesus came, the remnants of the united kingdom of Israel were all but swept away.  Jesus beckons His countrymen to abandon their idols and to find rest in Him.  He comforts many and wears this name as He ministers from Galilee to the cross.

 2.      Almighty God

Jesus profoundly claims in John 8:58, “I assure you: Before Abraham was, I am.”  Throughout this Gospel, John highlight’s the divinity of the Christ.  He never explicitly says it, but throughout His ministry He displays many attributes of God.  He speaks with authority, works miracles, forgives sins, displays miraculous knowledge and raises the dead. 

3.      The Everlasting Father

This name throws a stumbling block for people trying to understand the mystery of the Trinity.  With the Sovereign Grace Ministries’ statement of faith saying, “the Father is not the Son,” how do we interpret this?  Jesus brings some clarity in John 14:10, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?  The words I speak to you I do not speak on My own.  The Father who lives in Me does His work.”  This is attributed to our Lord and Savior in the same way the Church is attributed to us: the Father is the head of the Son just as the Son is the head of the Church.  In light of that, this man is One bound to the everlasting Father.

4.      The Prince of Peace

“Again the high priest questioned Him, ‘Are You the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?’ ‘I am,’ said Jesus, ‘and all of you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.’ (Mark 14:61b-62).”  The Old Testament is filled with prophecies about the reign of the Davidic King.  In 2 Samuel 7, God proclaims to His servant that the one to reign on the throne of Israel shall have an eternal throne over a kingdom of peace.

Rather than singing and composing a piece about presents, Handel wrote an oratorio to God’s glory, serving as an eighteenth century herald for the Messiah.  Considering how important, how noble, how beloved the One who was born on the first Christmas Day is, let us not reduce our holiday festivities to eggnog and mistletoe.  But, as the Book of Common Prayer beckons us, let us lift up our hearts to the Lord, for unto us the Son has been given.

TagsChristmas, Colbert, Messiah