Last Sunday, Pastor Ken talked about the gift of Christmas. And Christmas, in our Western culture, is about gifts. The idea of gifts is so prevailing that even Jewish people copied that custom. You see, during December, the Jewish world celebrates Hanukkah, which celebrates the rededication of the Temple after the Jews fought against the Greeks who had desecrated it about 165 BC. Until the 1950s, this feast was mostly about courage, emancipation and war. However, many Jewish sources describe that it was in that decade that this trend became pervasive among American Jews due to the post war increase in Christmas gifts that were promoted through Christmas catalogs, newspapers radio and TV. Jewish people wanted to be part of the holiday spirit without celebrating Christmas! And so, Hanukkah became the Jewish gift giving holiday.
Christmas was an odd season for me growing up. I watched with amusement people running to get gifts. I watched with amazement the windows of the shops in my hometown offering beautiful things. The weirdest thing was to see all these decorations depicting winter while the average temperature was about 100 degrees, and we were all sweating! (mind you, Argentina is on the other side of the equator and it’s blistering Summer in December!) I felt like a spectator of a ping pong match watching the hustle and the bustle of the holiday. After all, Santa Claus was not coming to my house. There would not be any special family gatherings for us, no traditional Christmas dinner, or waiting until midnight to toast Merry Christmas. And there would be no gifts because Christmas was not for Jews like us.
Talking about gifts, one thing I clearly remember about these strange traditions was kids writing letters to Santa Claus asking for whatever they wanted. A crucial aspect of those letters was letting Santa know that they had been good throughout the year. This brings me to Pastor Ken’s message last Sunday. He talked about the greatest gift ever, God’s only Son.
There is a stark contrast between kids’ reasoning for getting gifts and God’s reasoning. The reason God wanted to give us the greatest gift ever is NOT because we have been good BUT quite the opposite! As Romans 3:23 says “we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We need the gift of Jesus because, under our natural condition, we are under God’s wrath, we are under the power of sin, we are spiritually dead, our hearts are hardened by evil, we are at odds with God and so, we are in danger of hell. In Michael Jackson’s words in his 1987 hit song “we are bad, we are bad, really, really bad. “
Let’s be thankful this Christmas because God, in His unmeasurable mercy, saw we had no hope. Let’s be thankful because God saw we were no good. Contrary to what kids believe when they write to Santa Claus, we can never be good enough to receive the gift we will all remember this Christmas. Let’s rejoice because, as we celebrate the cradle, the grave was already in the horizon. Let’s rejoice because, as Romans 5:8 says, God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Add Your Comment