That is a sort of parable for us as we enter this Advent season in anticipation of another Christmas. It is certainly coming. I wonder if there is anything for me? Well, of course, holidays and presents and feasts, but is that all? Our answer to that depends on a more crucial inquiry: Who is that babe in the nativity scene?
A long time ago, about 90 A.D., John the Apostle gave us a clue. Writing from Ephesus, a prominent Greek city where he lived as an old man, he penned his version of Christmas. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory…” (John 1:1, 14)
The Greeks in Asia Minor, to whom John wrote, were obsessed with Hellenistic philosophy, especially Gnosticism, advocating that anything material is evil while only the spiritual is good. Thus, they could not accept the teaching that Jesus was truly human, God in the flesh. This controversy raged on until finally settled by the church leaders in 451 A. D. at the Council of Chalcedon. Their formula is still held by Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox. Who was the babe? “The Lord Jesus, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood.”
Now back to our personal question: Is there anything in this Christmas for me, anything more than stuffing stockings and swapping cards? Absolutely, if we remember that the babe grew up and revealed who he was, that Bethlehem is only six miles from Calvary and the empty grave, and that Jesus the Christ is not in a crib nor on a cross nor in a tomb. He is with each of us in His Spirit. “And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life, and that life is in his Son.” (1 John 5:11). That is what is in Christmas, if we really believe!
John F. Anderson, Jr. is pastor emeritus of First church, Dallas, Texas.
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