Christmas - The Real Story
Christmas is a time to celebrate family through various gatherings, meals, and the exchanging of gifts. The underlying reason for the season is the celebration of Christ Jesus’ birth on that cold December day followed by three kings who bestowed gifts upon a newborn child laying in hay lined manger in a wood shed. At least that’s how the Christmas pageants portray the events.
And Now For The Rest of The Story
(don’t miss The Real Story at the end)
While the pageant’s portrayal is beautiful, it’s not exactly right. For instance:
December is a wonderful and beautiful time to celebrate Jesus’s birth and it makes for great movies with romance stories set in small snow covered towns. However, most scholars agree Jesus was likely born in the Spring. So, why do we celebrate it in December? In 46 BC, Julias Caesar designated Dec 25 as the official winter solstice (shortest day). From that point the days begin to get longer, so there is more light each day. Therefore, the celebration would be a celebration of light. At some point, Christians began celebrating, on that day, the greatest light of all, Christ Jesus.
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” - John 9:5
The wood shed makes a nice nativity setting but that’s not what the Bible says. It says there was no room in the inn and the child was laid in a manger which would imply Mary and Joseph were hanging out with the animals. That could have been a fenced in area, a cave, a shed, or any number of other settings. Tradition, however, believes it was a cave. The tradition of displaying the nativity scene was started in Italy by Saint Francis of Assisi in 1223 when he created a live nativity scene to bring a more realistic feel to the celebration.
Three Kings showing up on your birthday carrying gifts is pretty impressive and an amazing honor. Let’s start with the number of kings. The Bible doesn’t actually say they were Kings, it says they were Wise Men from the East. It also never actually says three, although they gave three types of gifts.
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? - Matthew 2:1-2
Jesus also wasn’t a baby when the wise men showed up, he was actually around 2 years old and living in a house.
When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. - Matthew 2:10-11
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. - Matthew 2:16
The Real Story
It actually makes no difference if we celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th or any other day of the year. It’s not about the ‘When’ we celebrate, it’s about the ‘Why’ we celebrate. It also doesn’t matter if the pageant shows three kings or thirty kings. Nor does it matter if they were kings at all. What is incredible is that God led, by way of a special star, a caravan of wise men from a great distance away to recognize and to celebrate Jesus Christ. These men were obviously important enough that they got Herod’s attention. That can only be a God thing.
God thought it was important to have these men travel a great distance to celebrate Christ’s birth. Not so much the birth itself, but the fact that the King of the Jews, the Messiah, our Savior, our Redeemer, had arrived to fulfill a promise and to begin a 33 year journey to provide a way for us to live with him in eternity.
And those, my friends, are the only details we need to remember and celebrate this Christmas Day. So, while we enjoy our time together with family and friends, exchange gifts, and eat way too much, let us not forget why we celebrate this day in the first place...
Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” - John 18:37
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. - John 14:1-3
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John 14:6
