Who is Christmas about?

As Christmas approaches it is important for us to pull away from the traditions long enough to focus on what Christmas is, and on what that means to us. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of the one we call the Christ—the Messiah—the Anointed One of God. His human name is Jesus. But in America we don’t talk about this often. We like to keep things generic and speak of “the Christmas spirit” as though there is such a thing apart from the Christ. I believe it is important—in fact the most important thing—to be sure of who this Jesus actually was, and is.

Historians argue about the answer to that question—mostly because they make assumptions that He could not be who His followers claim Him to be. Such assumptions are illogical and intellectually dishonest. Yet they prevail because if they are not true, then the truth becomes very inconvenient.

What did Jesus say about who He was? Jesus said

“I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)

“I am the way and the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

When asked by the High Priest (with His life on the line) if He was the Messiah, Jesus answered “I am,”, and continued “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Mark 14:61-62)

These are only a few examples of what Jesus Himself said. Anyone can read the New Testament and clearly see that Jesus taught that He was the Messiah—God in the flesh—and one with the Father. The Jews understood this enough to try to kill Him for blasphemy. But what does that mean to us? C.S. Lewis summed up the implications of this.

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (Mere Christianity)

Given what He said about Himself, Jesus was either insane, supremely dishonest, or He is Lord (notice the change is tense–if He is Lord, we aren’t talking about the past, but now!). But virtually no one in the last 2000 years has been willing to say He was dishonest or insane. What He taught, the life He lived and the impact He had simply do not allow these conclusions.

That means He is Lord. And if He is Lord then we have to make a choice. Do we surrender ourselves to Him as our Lord, our King, our Master? NOT choosing is itself a choice to reject Him. It is a choice to ignore what we know about Him because we simply don’t want to acknowledge Him as Lord.

As we celebrate Christmas, let’s celebrate with honesty. If we believe Jesus was crazy, let’s say so. If we believe He knew He wasn’t really one with God and was lying to His followers, let’s own that. And if we believe these things, let’s stop pretending we celebrate Christmas.

But if we can’t accept that He was crazy or a liar, then let’s recognize He is the Messiah and celebrate the greatest gift God has given to humanity—a second chance. A chance to be forgiven. A chance to be a different person. A chance to live a life of meaning. A chance to have eternal life with Jesus Himself. This is what Christmas is about. If you already belong to Him, make sure those around you understand this, and celebrate the day that the King of Kings became flesh!

Know Jesus and Be Faithful!

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