How Do You Approach Christmas? Series

After a man visited the Holy land, he described his experience. He was turned off by the commercialism. Years later he took a second trip to the Holy Land, and he looked past the commercialism to focus on the places of Bible history. He was thinking more about being in the places Jesus walked. Taught and prayed.

It is interesting for me that I had a similar experience on my two visits to the Holy Land. On the first visit I remember being so disappointed that at the tomb of Lazarus merchants were selling souvenirs. The guide did not share our faith and he could not understand why a cathedral built on the spot that could have been where the angel made an announcement to Mary was not meaningful for me.

On my second trip the guide shared our evangelical faith and knew we were more concerned about Biblical history than shrines. A different approach to the Holy Land brought a different perspective. The second trip was much more meaningful.

Where we put our focus at Christmas can change our experience. How we approach Christmas will determine what we get out of the Christmas season. Will Christmas be a burden, with all the activities and responsibilities or will it be a time to celebrate the savior coming to earth.

We are about to look at how different individuals approached Christmas. One of them took the wrong approach and looked past the significance and in the process brought about much destruction. The other two with the right approach to Christmas received a tremendous blessing at the first Christmas.

The wrong approach to Christmas is when you are worrying about yourself. In our thinking about Christmas the one who represents the most anti-Christmas spirit is mean old Mr. Scrooge. The Bible portrays a real-life anti-Christmas antagonist that makes Scrooge seem nice. That ultimate wrong approach to Christmas figure is King Herrod.

He is called Herod the Great, but we use the term great very loosely. There is no Christmas story that could create a villain so low and so afraid of loosing power than this man Herod. On the surface Herod did seem to be great.

Herod was ruler of Judea and he professed to be a Jew. He even rebuilt the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The temple was envisioned under King David and then built under King Solomon. After the destruction of the temple, it was rebuilt by Zerubbabel as we read in the book of Ezra. The second temple was again destroyed and rebuilt by King Herod. That is what you see when you go to Jerusalem and visit the wailing wall. It is the part of the temple Herod built that is still standing.

As Herod was rebuilding the temple to God of Israel in Jerusalem he was building temples to pagan gods in other places. We see his true colors when the Magi came to Jerusalem.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-2)

The phrase “King of the Jews” caught Herod’s attention. Because of this Herod, in all his false piety, called together the chief priests and teachers to ask them where the Messiah would be born. In Bethlehem they answered.

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel. (Matthew 2:3-6)

Herod pretended that he wanted to worship the child. He sent the Magi to Bethlehem and then they were to come back and report to him about the situation.

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him. (Matthew 2:7-8)

Who could doubt Herod’s sincerity? After all wasn’t he financing the rebuilding of the Jewish temple? There are some major signals that Herod did not want to worship Jesus. There were major red flags when Herod said he wanted to know the precise location of where Jesus was so he could worship Jesus.