Missing the True Meaning of Christmas?

To borrow from Charles Dickens’ famous opening line, Christmas can be “the best of times and the worst of times.” I hope for you and your families it will be the best of times and it should be when you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. We are all getting ready to experience the joy of another Christmas. I agree with the song by Andy Williams that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. 

But it is possible to miss the true meaning of Christmas. I am convinced that there are many people who miss Christmas every year. It’s not as though they are physically absent. It’s simply that they are oblivious to the real meaning of Christmas. 

I feel that our culture has made a mess of Christmas. 

We have compounded the holiday with so many traditions and unreal expectations that we have missed the simplicity of the birth of Christ. 

We read in Luke 2:7, “And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.“ While the innkeeper is never mentioned in scripture, his presence is implied. Tradition has not been kind to him. There is no evidence that he was hostile or even unsympathetic. He was simply busy. It was census time. The city was bulging with everyone whose ancestry went back to the town. Every living descendant of David would have been there plus many others.

The Son of God was about to be born on his property but in his preoccupation He missed it as far as we know. He represents millions today who are preoccupied with other things and activities. It is not necessarily sinful attractions. They are simply consumed with shopping for gifts, parties, social events, even church events-preoccupied to the point that we get so busy with the holiday that we forget what we should be celebrating.

The mass of people in Jerusalem missed Christmas. The birth of Christ took place only a few miles away. The world today is full of people who worship their own gods. They don’t worship idols like they did at the time of Christ, but we still have idols and gods. Some people worship money. Others worship cars, boats, and houses. Some worship power and prestige. Those things are the pagan gods of today-the idols of the twenty-first century. 

And if that is what you’re worshiping, you’ll miss Christmas, too. You may receive some presents, eat a big dinner, and enjoy a beautifully decorated tree, but you’ll miss Christmas. The apostle John said, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:10-12).

You may be missing the true meaning of Christmas because you may be too much into the holiday and not enough into Jesus. As we now prepare to celebrate Christmas, let us focus on our relationship with Jesus Christ and let this be the most wonderful time of the year.

Pastor Ralph