The answer to the question of our title might seem to some to be a “no brainer” or such an easy question that takes no thinking to answer. However, if we look at the world around us, we will see many diverse ways how Christmas is celebrated through different traditions.
Portugal and Brazil – Brazilian and Portuguese families come together on Christmas Eve to eat dinner as late as 10 p.m. Then, at exactly midnight, they exchange gifts, toasts, and wish each other a Merry Christmas. At midnight they go to mass, Missa Do Galo (Rooster Mass). The service is often followed by fireworks in the town square.
Japan – Although Christmas isn’t a national holiday in Japan, rather than gathering around the table for a holiday dinner, families go to their local Kentucky Fried Chicken. The tradition began in 1974 after a wildly successful marketing campaign called “Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!” or “Kentucky for Christmas!”
Iceland – Similar to the 12 days of Christmas in the U.S., Iceland celebrates 13. Each night before Christmas, Icelandic children are visited by the 13 Yule Lads. After placing their shoes by the window, the little ones will head upstairs to bed. In the morning, they will either have received candy (if they’re good) or be greeted with shoes full of rotten potatoes if they’re bad.
New Zealand – Because summer falls during Christmastime, a number of their traditions center around a grill, where families and friends gather for a casual cookout of fresh seafood, meat, and seasonal vegetables.
When you look at our Christmas traditions here in the United States there are many general similarities throughout the nation, nevertheless with many households there are many differing traditions some of which can go back generations and are unique and cherished by each family.
Knowing these interesting facts explain to us how Christmas is celebrated but does not does not answer the question, why we celebrate Christmas? As Christians, how we celebrate Christmas is one thing and why we celebrate Christmas is another. How much do our personal and or family Christmas traditions express our personal relationship with and love for Jesus?
Christian’s all over the world should celebrate Christmas in honor of the birth of Jesus Christ. Even though the celebration of the birth of Christ’s birth is not found in the life of the early church in the New Testament. We celebrate Christmas because of who Christ is in our lives.
The unifying factor is the biblical fact that Jesus’ birth is well documented in the Bible. Beginning when the angel who appeared to the shepherds the night of Jesus’ birth said, Luke 2:10-11 NIV, “10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Did you ever think that our celebrating Christmas should be as the angel said, because the birth of Jesus Christ is “good news”? Good news is the saving message that the savior of humanity has come into the world.
When we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and weddings of someone who we really love and or appreciate, our focus or the emphasis of the celebration is always on the person we are recognizing and honoring. If someone at any of these celebrations would be more interested in a football or baseball game or any other sports event, so much so that during the celebration they would be watching it on their cell phone, it would be seen by others as disrespectful, rude and inappropriate.
Every believer in Christ has a personal experiential knowledge of what this “good news” is all about because of the reality of how God changed their life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Good news is meant to be celebrated, in fact, the angel said the news of Jesus’ birth would cause “great joy” and would be “for all the people”, the “why” of every Christian’s joyful celebration of Christmas should be unanimous, it is all about Jesus.
Another reason why we celebrate Christmas is because, as the angel said in Luke 1:11, “a Savior has been born to you; he is the Christ, the Lord.” The three titles that the angel applies to Jesus are important.
Jesus is the “Savior” who delivers us from sin and death Matthew 1:21, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Jesus is the, “Christ” or Messiah who fulfills the Law and the Prophets, Matthew 5:17 NIV, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
He is the divine “the Lord” who has entered our world: the Almighty has taken on human flesh; God and man have been fused together in an indivisible, eternal bond; God is truly with us, Matthew 1:23, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
When celebrating Christmas, we celebrate the Christ in whom all of God’s promises for us are “Yes” and “Amen”, 2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT, For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”
We celebrate the Lord Jesus at Christmas who in humility took on “the humble position of a slave” for our sakes, Philippians 2:6-8 NLT, “6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.”
We can celebrate Christmas with gift-giving because of the gift of salvation that God gave to us, Romans 6:23, “…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”.
We can celebrate Christmas by stringing lights because the Light of the world has come to us John 1:4, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” John 8:12, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
We can celebrate Christmas with carols and choirs because they are expressive of the joy and follow the examples of the angels, all of whom celebrated the Lord in praise, Luke 2:13-14, “13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
In celebrating Christmas, we celebrate the God’s expression of love for us and it’s undeserved blessing we experience. John 3:16-17, “16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 6:40, For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 11:25-26, 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve fell. They drug all humanity with them into the darkness and death of sin. 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. Romans 5:12, Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned…” So, what did God do? He came down to where we are to save us. That’s what Christmas is all about—God’s coming down to rescue us, to do what was necessary to deliver us from the darkness. John 12:44-46, “44 Then Jesus cried out, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
We celebrate Christmas because it was at Christmas time that the Rescuer of all mankind came to save us from the hopeless situation we were in. Jesus did not stay in heaven; He came down to where we are.
John 6:37-40, 38 For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. 39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. 40 For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”
Finally, we celebrate Christmas because of Jesus, our sins are forgiven and as a result we are made right with God, or in other words we can have a personal relationship with God because of Jesus which should be the reason we celebrate Christmas.
Romans 3:23-26 NIV, 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
As we celebrate Christmas with all of our traditions, secular and or personal please take note by asking yourself this question. When I am celebrating Christmas am I celebrating Jesus or something else?
Pastor John
