The Truth about Traditions
Jeremiah 10:1-10 12/1/07
In my lifetime I have read the Bible through more than once. And every time I do, it always reveals to me something new. Even though I’ve read it before, even the most popular of the scriptures, God still breaths new life into His word. Now Jeremiah might have been a Bullfrog according to 3-Dog Night, but the Jeremiah that wrote our text was a Prophet. During this time, there was no Bible to say of, and God would use men like Jeremiah to speak to us. Several months ago, Ronda Cooper came to me and asked me my opinion of our text.
She was in a disagreement with someone about whether it was wrong to put a Christmas tree up on not. And when I first read our text, it sure sounded like a Christmas tree this man of God is warning against. “Cuts a tree from the forest”…decorate it with silver and gold”. Well at least it sounds like how it used to be.
When I was young, we would go out and go into the woods and find our own Christmas tree and then we would cut it down and drag it out of the woods and take it home. We would go home place it in the stand, and then decorate it. And if you think that I am cheep, I’ll tell you where I get it from. I never knew that you didn’t have to reuse the tinsel. My mom when we put the tree up, would hang the lights, then we would put the tinsel on the tree that we always took off the tree when we took it down the previous years. Now that’s cheap.
Now I never carried on the tradition of reusing the tinsel, but for many years we didn’t go out in the woods, but we would go to a tree farm and cut down our own tree. But I wasn’t too disappointed when the Dr. told us due to the boy’s allergies that we would be better to put up an artificial tree.
And the artificial trees they have now are amazing. Some have the lights built in; some simply fold up and down like an umbrella.
And even now we don’t always decorate the trees with silver and gold. Now trees can have themes. One year, my wife Hope had a tree we decorated with fishing stuff. Neat tree, and I would have been perfectly fine with that tree every year. But the following year, she changed the theme. That means spending more money for the new theme.
And tonight we have a tradition we do every year called the “Hanging of the greens”. Now I know why we have never had anyone with the last name of Green attend our church. But it is a time where we come together and we hang the decorations, not the greens, on the Christmas tree.
So this morning I wanted to tell you the truth about some of the traditions that occur on and around Christmas time, so I’ve entitled this sermon “The truth about the traditions”.
So let’s begin about the truth about…
The Christmas tree
Now I am not going into the history of the Christmas tree. It is a tradition that dates back for centuries. And if I thought it was wrong to have a Christmas tree in your house, I certainly wouldn’t want to have one in our church. So when I look at the Christmas tree, it reminds me of another tree.
1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.
Jesus Christ, gave His life on a tree known as the cross for you and me.
The lights that we place on the tree remind me of the light of the world.
John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."
We are not the light. And even when we accept the greatest gift ever given by receiving Jesus Christ into our heart, we are not the light. Just as the moon has no light within itself, it simply reflects the light from the Sun. And when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we simply are to reflect the light from the Son. S-O-N!
Matthew 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
We are to the light that leads others out of the darkness.
The ornaments we hang have a lot of tradition. The first ornaments consisted of food, fruit mostly, hung on the tree and would be eaten. Now days we have moving ornaments that not only light up, but move, sing, dance, all kinds of things to enhance the beauty of the tree. So as we hang the ornaments on our tree, we should remember the beauty of the Son of God giving His life on the tree for you and I. The most important ornament is the one that goes on the top of the tree. Most of the time it is a star or an angel. The star reminds us of the star of the East that lead the Wise men to Jesus. The Angel reminds us of the host of angels who sang out the praises of the birth of Christ.
The gifts that we place under the tree remind us greatest gift of Jesus Christ, and leads to my next point. The tradition of…
Gift Giving
Gift giving is a tradition that reflects on the act of the three wise men giving gifts to the Christ Child. We all remember the story, but let me give you some truths about this event.
First of all, this event took place several months after the birth of Christ. Several reasons support this conclusion. One Joseph and Mary were living in a house. We know that He was born in the barn because there was no room for them in the Inn. Then we read in Matthew 2:11 how the Wise men referred to Him as a young Child instead of a baby. Also we read that Herod the King ordered all the male Children two and under to be killed. No need to do that if Jesus was under a year old. And the final proof that Jesus was more than a few days old are that we know that Joseph and Mary offered what was known as the sacrifice of the poor with the sacrifice offering a pair of pigeons or turtledoves. That offering was offered 40 days after the birth of the son. So if the Wise men would have offered their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which was very valuable, I don’t think they would qualify for them to offer the sacrifice of the poor.
And speaking of those gifts, can you imagine a kid asking for gifts of gold, or frankincense, or myrrh. Not on a kids top 10 list if you know what I mean.
There are several theories as to why those gifts were given. There could be a lot of symbolism there. Let me share with you one of them.
The gold represents Royalty. It of course was the same as it is today, worth money. King Solomon’s had the Temple plated with gold. We read about the streets of gold in heaven.
The frankincense is derived by cutting a slit in the bark of an Arabian tree. The yellow sap has an agreeable fragrance, & is hardened & used as incense in worship. So frankincense represents worship - worship of the new king.
"Myrrh" comes from stunted trees. It is a brown, fragrant perfume that is used to anoint dead bodies - to embalm & preserve them. Myrrh represents the work & mission of Jesus. He came to die for us upon the cross.
But what I believe those gifts did, was fund the escape route to Egypt. I mean I don’t believe that Joseph all the sudden hit the gold mine, or his rich uncle died and left him an inheritance.
So I believe these gifts provided the means for him to take his family and flee to Egypt. Now understand that King Herod had not ordered the massacre of those innocent babies, two and under. But God warned them in a dream that was going to happen so that they would have a head start.
And one little tidbit here, nowhere in the Bible do you see these Wise men being referred to as Kings. It would be highly unlikely that a King would travel to see the birth of anyone; they would be to much into themselves. Just a little something to think about as you sing the song, “We Three Kings”. We don’t even know that there were only three. We asume that because of the three gifts.
They are thougth to be some kind of fortune-tellers or an astrologers, or even astronomers. But they were Wise men because they sought Jesus Christ and wise men, woman, and children still seek Him.
And finally the last tradition I want to talk about is…
Celebrating Christmas
I did a sermon not to long ago on a Sunday night entitled, “Truth or Tradition”. I talked about several traditions we find in our churches today. But the one we don’t think about is the tradition of Christmas.
Nowhere in the Bible do we find that on a certain day we are to celebrate the birth of Christ. But nowhere in the Bible do we find that we are to celebrate a lot of holidays. The one we just celebrated, Thanksgiving. The Bible says that we are to ALLWAYS give thanks. Nowhere do we read about the celebration of any birthdays. Christmas, like it or not, is a tradition.
And a lot of things that surround the celebration of Christmas are traditions as well. The Christmas tree is a tradition. The exchanging of gifts is a tradition. So as we wrap this all up, with where we started at, let me share with you the truth about these traditions.
In our text that we read in the beginning; remember the one that said “Cuts a tree from the forest”…decorate it with silver and gold”. I don’t know if you caught vs.3, For the customs of the peoples are futile; The word customs could be translated as traditions. So is it wrong to have a Christmas tree, or exchange gifts, or celebrate Christmas? It can be.
Chapter 10 is talking about Idols. When it is talking about cutting down a tree and then decorates in silver and gold, it is talking about making an Idol. I mean think about it, Jesus wasn’t even born yet, so they were not talking about a Christmas tree. It talks about how it must be carried and cannot speak. But the end of verse 5 states it best. “Do not be afraid of them, For they cannot do evil, Nor can they do any good."
So the truth about the tradition is ANYTHING you put before your relationship with God is wrong. Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.
And that is where the problem lies. A lot of people are making an idol out of the Christmas Holiday. They are even trying to take the Christ out of Christmas.
In some places, you are not allowed to say Merry Christmas, but instead you are to say, Happy Holidays. With all the focus being on the Holiday and taking the focus off the reason for the Holiday, it becomes a idol.
And if you don’t have the right relationship with God, then it doesn’t matter what you get this year or any year for Christmas.
Matthew 6:19-21"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Where is your heart this morning? Have you entered into a personal relationship with Him? The greatest gift ever given was when God gave His only Son to make the way so that you can spend eternity in heaven with Him forever.
If you have already entered into that relationship with Him, make sure, not just this Christmas season, but everyday you put Him first in your life.
Let’s pray
