Every Christmas there is a big push to “keep Christ in Christmas.” But what about a drive to have a Christ-centered Christmas? That is something different.
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There is a good reason for this push because of the secularization of our society and this very Christian holiday.
However this year I have taken a step back to think about what it means to keep Christ in Christmas.
Are we just trying to keep the name Christ in the word Christmas? Are we trying to keep the religious symbolism of the Christian holiday? What does it truly mean to keep Christ in Christmas?
Because of these questions, I decided to look once again at the incarnation of Christ to see how to keep Christ in Christmas. Maybe it is time to have a Christ-centered Christmas instead.
Here are a few observations that I have found.
How To Have A Christ-Centered Christmas Personally
The first question that we have to ask ourselves is why did God decide to send Jesus to the world in the first place? What was the purpose of the incarnation of Christ?
So why did God send Jesus, and why did He send him as a babe in the manger?
The Emmanuel principle.
Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
In this one straightforward verse, we get a genuinely profound principle.
The whole reason that God sent Jesus was so that He could walk among us and be in us.
God sent Jesus so that we could be reconciled to Him and that both God and man could have an intimate relationship with one another.
If you stop and think about that for a second, it has profound and deep meaning. The God of the universe cared so much about you and I that He sent His son to make a relationship possible. He wanted to be with us.
Because of this principle, what do you think would be a good way for us to focus on a Christ-centered Christmas
For me, that means to stop what I am doing and getting so involved in the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season and make time to spend time with our Heavenly Father personally.
The whole purpose of the Christmas event was not to celebrate gift-giving, family, or making our children happy.
None of those things are bad things in and of themselves.
The purpose of the Christmas event from God’s perspective was to cultivate a relationship between Himself and us.
So if we are to have a Christ-centered Christmas, then that must mean that we are going to honor the wishes of the one that gave the gift of His son and cultivates that relationship that He so earnestly desires.
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The infusion principle.
The next question we need to ask ourselves is why did Christ come as a babe in a manger?
He could have come as a conquering hero in the clouds for the nation of Israel. He could have come as an angry and vengeful God desiring to punish mankind for its evil ways.
There are many ways that He could have come to earth, but God sent Him as a babe in a manger. Why?
I believe that the reason He did this was to show the real heart of God towards us.
It was not God’s desire to exercise positional authority as the God of the universe, but to develop relational authority as the Father who loves His children.
Jesus explained this principle in the book of John when He said,
John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
When we look at the life and the heart of Jesus we are seeing the heart of God the Father. His whole desire was to reconcile people to Himself. This shows that it was not God’s desire to rule man by dictate, but to change man by relationship.
We can learn a precious lesson in how we put Christ back into Christmas.
God infused Himself into the lives of everyday people. He chose to walk among us. He influenced people by relationship and not by decree. When we are encouraging our society to put Christ back into Christmas, I think it might behoove us to follow the example of God.
It is not going to do us any good to complain to store owners that they have changed Christmas to Xmas. It is not going to do us any good to take atheists to court over nativity scenes.
What will do us much more good is to bless the store owners with the same acts that Jesus did to the people around Him.
Ask them what their needs are and pray for them and help them in their endeavors.
Find the atheists that fought against your nativity scenes and make it a point to establish a relationship with them and be a living love letter from God to them.
1 Peter 2:21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
To honestly put Christ back into Christmas, we are all going to have to start following the steps of Jesus.
The example that God sent was not one of positional authority demanding adherence by the dictate of law. His example was one of relational authority changing the hearts of people. They saw the life He led.
Because of this, if we are honestly going to be a Christmas event in the lives of others, it is going to take humbling ourselves. It is going to take laying down our lives for others. And establishing relationship purposefully with those that might not be the types of people we would generally do this with.
So I ask you the question.
Are you going to have a Christ-centered Christmas this year?
All articles have been written or reviewed by Pastor Duke Taber. Pastor Duke Taber is an alumnus of Life Pacific University and Multnomah Biblical Seminary. He has been in pastoral ministry since 1988. Today he is the owner and managing editor of 3 successful Christian websites that support missionaries around the world. He is currently starting a brand new church in Mesquite NV called Mesquite Worship Center, a Non-Denominational Spirit Filled Christian church in Mesquite Nevada.
