What Are We Celebrating Anyway?

Tonight and tomorrow people all over the world will leave milk and cookies out for Santa, give gifts, drink eggnog and gather with family.  Christmas is a wonderful celebration that brings people together and enables us to show our love for one another.

Indeed, the angels who proclaimed Christ's birth professed "peace on earth and goodwill towards men".

But really, why do we go to all this trouble?  As a child, I was ecstatic with the anticipation of Santa coming with presents to the point that I could barely sleep at night. 

What often amazes me is that Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, agnostics, and atheists get caught up in the Christmas spirit, and joyously so.  I love the fact that people feel that they can participate so easily and freely in a Christian event.

But why is Christmas so great?  Why is it so important?  Why do we expend so much money, effort, and time on it?  Of course Christmas has been commercialized and polluted by consumerism and materialism, but we all contribute to it in different ways.

Ultimately, it boils down to the questions: who was Jesus, really?  Most historians agree that Jesus of Nazareth was the most consequential human being in history.  But how could this Jewish carpenter who ministered for only three years in a remote province of the Roman empire impact history in such an incredible way?  Humanly speaking, Jesus was killed.  It appeared he was defeated in a death reserved for criminals and traitors. Yet, his followers persevered in telling his story and teaching others what their Rabbi had taught.

This Christmas, if you've never really asked yourself the question then I challenge you to investigate who Jesus really was.  Was he just a prophet?  Was he a great teacher?  Or, was he who he claimed he was?

The Jews thought the Messiah would be a conquering king who would free Israel from its bondage.  And the Messiah did set people free, but in the way the prophet Isaiah predicted, not with a sword and shield, but in meekness and humility:

"For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors."

Merry Christmas to everyone, and especially to those who read this blog.  May you discover who Jesus really is, may you find truth that will change your life forever, just as it has changed mine.  I hope you don't mind my preaching today, but in reality everything else is meaningless in comparison to what a simple carpenter from Galilee came to earth to do two millenia ago.