The older I get the more I am amazed at the true meaning of the Christmas celebration. As we are soon to be launched into the inconceivable year of 2020 (sounds like the title of a Sci-Fi movie), the Christmas season our culture celebrates seems to be adrift in a vast ocean of meaninglessness. Christmas has lost its bearings; Also lost is the Story of Christmas. That Story is truly the greatest story ever told. It’s the story of light shinning into darkness.
C.S. Lewis had a God-given talent that allowed him to describe an old, familiar “thing” in a new and intriguing way. Like an artist with a brush, Lewis painted with well crafted words and revealed many truths that some had overlooked. In his classic book, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, we find these words spoken by Mr. Tumnus, one of Lewis’s characters in the story, as he was describing the land of Narnia as it lay under the spell of the White Witch:
“It is winter in Narnia,” said Mr. Tumnus, “and has been for ever so long…. always winter, but never Christmas.”
Those few words actually describe the world in which we find ourselves…a fallen world where it is “Always winter, but never Christmas”. Just watch the news for five minutes. Fighting, murder, lawsuits, on and on it goes. “Always winter but never Christmas”.
In “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, Aslan the Lion comes back to the world of Narnia after a long absence and the winter begins to fades away and Christmas returns; Captives are set free from the bondage of the White Witch. Lewis’ lion, Aslan, was a picture of Christ and the freedom Aslan brought to Narnia mirrors that freedom that Christ brought 2000 years ago. This is the story of Christmas.
We caught a glimpse of this “Christmas Story” in action this past October in Dallas, Texas. When Amber Guyger was convicted of murder for killing Botham Jean, Botham’s younger brother, Brandt, ask Judge Tammy Kemp if he could hug Amber Guyger. The Judge agreed and as Brandt was hugging Amber, he told her he forgave her. He said he was able to do this because of Christ. The Judge then stepped down from the bench, the place of power and authority, and told her God would forgive her and she then gave Amber her personal Bible. This is Christmas. This is what God did for us. He stepped into this universe, took off His robes of royalty and became flesh to redeem us.
One of my many favorite Christmas songs is “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”. This song was written 500 years ago and English has shifted a bit since then. The title, which is repeated many times in the verses of the song, actually means “God keep you mighty, Gentlemen”. But my point here is the lyrics of one of the verses:
Remember, Christ, our Savior
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan’s power
when we were gone astray….
Years ago I did some freelance illustration work for several publications. One publication wanted an illustration of Jesus in a manger (which was most likely a trough hewn in stone) with a lantern casting a shadow of the Cross over the infant’s face. Not your usual “warm and fuzzy” Christmas image, but the illustration did illustrate the truth of Christmas.
The reality is that Christ came as a baby for one purpose: To go to the cross, to save mankind from sin. Matthew 1:23 says:
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Think about that…”God with us”. God actually stepped into the time-space universe to be with us. Check out what John 1:1-2 says:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”
And then on down in verse 14 it says:
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The Word came to Bethlehem 2000 years ago. But that was only the beginning of this Salvation that has been offered to us. It was completed on the cross. Christ came, lived, and died on the cross, and then was raised from the grave to set us free from our bondage to sin. The result of this Christmas story is that we are made “right” in God’s eyes, and then we begin to live out this life in a different way. Free from judgement, free from being controlled by our sin nature.
That is the Christmas Story. That is Christmas. Moving from darkness to light, from bondage to freedom. The last verse of that old Christmas song goes like this:
Now to the Lord sing praises, All you within this place,
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
And with true love and brotherhood – Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas – All other doth deface.
O tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy
Once we embrace Christ, once we believe the gospel, we are righteous in God’s eyes and His spirit empowers us to truly love those around us. That is what you saw in that Texas courtroom.
I hope you have a great Christmas Season and remember the awesome Christmas story that begin in a manger, in a little Judean town one dark night.
