INTRODUCTION
Christmas. The word conjures up a myriad of images and memories. Nativity scenes (live and otherwise), endless Christmas movies and specials, pumpkin lots turning into Christmas tree lots, radio stations playing every version of Deck the Halls and Silent Night ever recorded, and, of course, shopping. I know some people (and of course I’m not referring to myself) who don’t think the Christmas season has started until they’ve watched A Charlie Brown Christmas at least twice. Other people lament that the season seems to become less and less special as stores start putting up Christmas displays earlier and earlier in the year. One year my brother posted a picture on Facebook on August 29 of a Christmas wrapping paper display at Costco.
Then there is the endless dispute between believers and unbelievers about what Christmas is and how it should be observed. And there’s even the debate amongst believers about whether or not Christmas should be celebrated at all or if its seeming roots in pagan ritual should make it off limits to Christians.
No matter what you think of when you hear the word Christmas, it’s a holiday that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And although we all have decades of tradition—both church tradition and cultural tradition—behind us, I’m hoping that this Christmas, we will be able to look at the events that occurred in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago in a new light. Tradition isn’t inherently bad or wrong, but I pray that if any cherished traditions blur or outright contradict the truth of God revealed in His Word, we would be able to lay them aside and embrace the One Who Is and Who Was and Who Is Coming.
I’ve always counted myself among those who can’t get enough of Christmas. I usually start listening to Christmas music in June (unless I haven’t stopped listening to it from the year before), and whenever we watch a TV series on Netflix, I squeal with delight when we come upon a Christmas episode. I suffer through the long, ridiculously hot Tucson summers always with an eye on how beautiful life will be when fall arrives. Even if the temperatures don’t cool off, at least I am able to look towards the Christmas season with legitimate and eager anticipation.
I’ve come to realize, in recent years, that unlike many people, my affinity for Christmas is not based on happy memories from childhood but on a deep longing for what the season has come to represent. Being fed on a steady diet of Christmas movies and Christmas specials for as long as I can remember, I grew up truly believing that Christmas was a time of magic and miracles. All the ordinariness and dullness of what we laughingly call life the rest of the year was transformed by the date on the calendar. Beautiful, wonderful, fulfilling events occur at Christmastime—families are brought together, relationships are mended, hearts are healed, and everyone finds true love!
Only...that was never my experience. Many of my most painful memories, both from childhood and adulthood, are bound up with Christmas. Instead of magic or miracle, I seemed to get disillusionment, disappointment, and despair. And yet, the longing never faded or diminished in any way. Year after year after year, I attempted to find my miracle, only to be met with monumental frustration. But still I kept hoping. And searching. And longing.
I guess a fairly logical question would be to ask, “Why?” Why keep hoping when that hope is never fulfilled? Why keep searching for something that refuses to be found? For me, the answer is that if I ever stopped believing that there was something more to this life than the reality I saw around me every day, I would have stopped living and checked out a very long time ago. That belief was truly the only thing that kept me going. I would read certain books or watch certain movies and something would stir within me, letting me know that my hope was not folly. And the truth is, God used my love of fantasy and science fiction to instill in me a belief in the supernatural.
Reading fantasy and science fiction literature caused me to see the world as a place where reality isn’t just what we perceive with our physical senses. I came to see the world as a place of potential wonder and transcendence. One of the dictionary definitions of transcendence is, “Lying beyond the ordinary range of perception.” That is always how I thought of God and the extraordinary works of power that He performed over and over in the Bible. He was beyond anything I could ever imagine, and He did things that defied human logic and reality.
In the Old Testament, the word which is translated “miracle” or “wonder” is the Hebrew word mofet. The word comes from a root verb (I absolutely LOVE this) which is translated “to shine, to be bright.” In its noun form, the word is translated “beautiful, bright, fair.” So what are the miracles or wonders the LORD performs? They are beautiful, bright deeds. And that is exactly what I think of when I hear the word transcendent.
All my life, I have longed to experience the extraordinary at Christmastime, but for the longest time, I don’t think I understood just what I was looking for nor why it always seemed bound up with Christmas. The truth is, the most extraordinary event, the brightest and most beautiful deed of all, occurred when the Creator of all that is emptied Himself and took on human form. And all that I’ve been longing for is really found in that event. Well, at least it begins there.
Most of the Bible doesn’t deal with the specifics of Jesus’ birth. Matthew and Luke are the only Gospel writers who included any details about Jesus in His early life, and their inclusion of the stories surrounding His birth were placed there with a very deliberate purpose in mind. Matthew was very concerned to show that Jesus was, indeed, the Anointed One, the Messiah, the King from David’s line. He was also keen on making sure that his readers understood that Jesus was the bringer of the new covenant which the LORD had promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34, as well as the One who would deliver Israel once again. In fact, Matthew makes a strong connection between the Exodus and Jesus’ life and ministry, especially in the way he constructs his Gospel. Matthew writes of the slaughter of the male babies and toddlers of Bethlehem always with the story of Moses in the background. When Jesus and His parents return from their flight to Egypt, Matthew quotes Hosea 11:1, pointing to the fact that just as the LORD had called Israel out of Egypt, so He called His own Son out of Egypt as well. He also tells of Jesus going into the wilderness for forty days, just as Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years. And, as the Torah was given on Mount Sinai, Jesus went up the mountain and presented His teaching (in the Old Testament, the word translated as “law” or “Torah” is rendered Teaching or Instruction by many Hebrew translators, thus making another strong connection between Jesus and the story of the Exodus).
Luke, on the other hand, was concentrating on Jesus being the culmination of the story of Israel, the One Israel had been waiting for (and, indeed, who they were meant to be all along—see Luke 2:29-32). He connected the birth of Jesus to other stories of births in the Hebrew scriptures (Samuel and Samson, in particular). The birth of Jesus was to be seen as the ultimate in a series of often miraculous births which the LORD had brought about in the history of Israel.
One more great birth narrative exists in the Gospels. It is much more succinct than those found in Matthew and Luke, and because it sounds like high theology, it is often passed over as not being a story. In reality, however, it is the culmination of a very long story.
JOHN 1:14
In the beginning, Creator and creation lived in shalom. Harmony, unity, and completeness. The Creator tabernacled with His image-bearers, Man and Woman. Then, the image-bearers rebelled. Woman was deceived and fell into trespass (1 Timothy 2:14), and her husband followed her rather remain faithful to his Creator (Romans 5:14). Man and Woman were driven from Eden (Genesis 3:22-24), and no longer did the Creator tabernacle with His image-bearers. Distance, separation, sickness. But the Creator had already set a plan in motion, a plan which would end the separation, bringing redemption and healing to His image-bearers and all of creation. The first step in His plan was to choose a people through whom He would manifest His glory and show Himself to all other peoples. A people among whom He would tabernacle (Exodus 29:38-46).
Sadly, the people He chose followed in the footsteps of Man and Woman, rebelling against their Creator, the One who dwelt in their midst—first in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple in Jerusalem. Even though their Creator had chosen them and granted them the most beautiful land, they followed hard after their fallen desires, becoming not image-bearers but distorted reflections. And so, once more, the Creator dealt with His creation. The people He had chosen were driven from the land and the Creator no longer tabernacled amongst His image-bearers (Ezekiel 10:18-19).
The startling truth, however, is that this was all part of the plan and the story. An absolutely integral part, in fact. The LORD told His chosen people what they would do centuries before they did it (Deuteronomy 31:16-21), and He made a promise to them. When they had been driven out, punished for their iniquity, and when their strength was all but gone, the LORD Himself would vindicate them and deliver them once again with a mighty hand (Deuteronomy 32:36-43). Best of all, He would return and tabernacle amongst them as He had in times of old (Ezekiel 43:1-9).
For centuries, the people of the LORD hoped and waited for the promises to be fulfilled. They longed for Him to vindicate and deliver them, and maybe even more than that, they longed for Him to return to them and dwell among them. They kept telling the stories that had been passed on to them for generation after generation, knowing that one day, the LORD would finish His story. But like all good stories, this one contained a twist. Never in their wildest imagination did the people of the LORD conceive of the stunning manner in which their Creator and God would bring all His promises to fruition.
Make no mistake—those living the story didn’t grasp the full implication of what occurred in Bethlehem. They understood that the LORD was doing a great thing and that He was extending His mighty hand once again to rescue and deliver His people. They believed that He was returning to them at last. However, they wouldn’t fully comprehend all that the LORD had done until years later, and even then, it would take searching the Scriptures, much prayer, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit for them to be able to share the story in its entirety.
1 JOHN 1:1
The Word became flesh. The LORD didn’t sit back and wait for His people to figure things out. He didn’t send a representative. He clothed His Word in flesh. You may remember from previous studies that in the Hebrew mind, words were not merely static representations of objects or ideas. Words were power.
In Genesis 15:1, 4, we are told that the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision. The implication is not that Abram heard a disembodied voice but that there was interaction between two beings—Abram and “the word.” Genesis 18:14 records the LORD asking the question “Is any word too wondrous, too difficult for the LORD?” If all that was intended was the utterance of speech, the question would be infinitely ridiculous. Another example from Genesis of how Hebrews thought of “the word” is found in Genesis 19:8, which tells us the disturbing story of Lot and his angelic visitors, but a curious phrase is used. Literally translated, the phrase would be “do no word to these men.” Lot was pleading with the men of Sodom not to abuse the angels, but the Hebrew uses d’var, which is “word.” Psalm 33:6 reiterates Genesis 1 in poetic fashion, telling us that by His word, the LORD created all that exists. In Isaiah 55:9-11, the LORD states that His word will perform and achieve all His purposes. The Word of the LORD is power. And it is that Word that was clothed in flesh and born in Bethlehem.
During the course of this series, we’ll be taking a look at the truth and traditions of Christmas, and we’ll be exploring exactly what it means that God’s Word was clothed in flesh. My prayer is that we will be able to declare, along with Simeon, that our eyes have seen the LORD’s salvation—the King and the Lamb, and that we might better understand the words of Peter (1 Peter 1:18-21). The One Who is, the One Who was, and the One Who is coming.
O come, let us adore Him!
NOTE: You’ll find links just under each title to our recordings of the song each chapter is based on.