As you can see from the title of the sermon this morning, I’m going to attempt to overturn much of what you believed to be true about Christmas. Over the last several years I’ve become convinced that God created me to combat conventional wisdom. Why? Most of the time conventional wisdom is just plain wrong, even though it’s widely accepted. The authors of the book Freakonomics tell the reason this is so:
“Conventional wisdom … must be simple, convenient, comfortable, and comforting – though not necessarily true.”
Therefore it is with great delight that I confront and afflict you with this Christmas message. But please, as I shatter your illusions, remember that it’s because I love you.
The first truth I want to foist upon you was hinted at in last week’s message:
Hallmark misses the mark
No disrespect is intended to the card company. Hallmark represents the romantic way that we’ve begun to view Christmas. That is to say, greeting card companies like Hallmark pretty-up the picture. They simplify, sanitize, and symbolize the season to create warm feelings inside card buyers. To demonstrate how Hallmark misses the mark, I’m going to present my own top 10 list.
Top 10 Christmas Fallacies
10. Mary rode a donkey to Bethlehem
Where does the Bible tell us this? No where as far as I can find. Don’t feel too bad if you’ve always assumed this. I’d been a pastor for nearly a decade when some silly girl gave me a Bible quiz with this question: What did Mary ride into Bethlehem? I said donkey too. You’d think that in the thousands of dollars I spent in seminary someone would have pointed that one out.
9. Jesus was born in 1 AD
In fact, Jesus was born sometime before 4 BC. How do we know this? We have historical records of when King Herod the Great died. It was 4 BC. We also know that Jesus was born during the time of Caesar Augustus who began his reign in Rome in 14 BC. The fact that Jesus was born during a Roman census narrows it down even further. Quirinius was governor of Syria in 6 AD when there was a census, but that’s too late for Jesus’ birth because Herod was already dead. Following the 14 year pattern, Jesus was likely born in 8 BC.
8. A mean innkeeper turned Joseph and Mary away
I always thought this one to be true because I played the part of the surly innkeeper at church as a kid. With a bathrobe for outerwear and towel on my head, I believe my line, spoken to kids playing Joseph and Mary, went something like this: “We have no room today.”
The reason this may not be accurate is that the word we translate as “inn” actually means “guest room.” We have the image in our minds that Mary arrived in Bethlehem the night when Jesus was born, but the Bible doesn’t say that. They could have been there several weeks or months staying with relatives, which was the proper protocol. It’s more likely that they moved out of a crowded house to have more privacy and more room in a stable. We find that quite appalling, but you have to remember that rooms at ancient lodges were usually little more than a stall with a roof over it. A stable would have been a suitable birthplace.
7. The wise men saw Jesus in the manger
I always tell people that if they have a manger scene with wise men, if they want to be accurate, they need to put the wise men away for three months to 2 years and then bring them out. But that doesn’t work either because Matthew’s gospel tells us that Jesus, Joseph, and Mary were living in a house by the time they showed up with their gold, frankincense, and myrrh (2:11).
6. A little drummer boy played “pa rum pum pum pum” for baby Jesus
It’s a sweet story, but it’s fiction. The song was written in the 1950s and the animated movie was created in 1968. I’m sorry if that bursts your bubble. This may help … That Rudolph story is absolutely true.
5. Mary and Joseph had a silent night
“The little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes”? Give me a break. Yes, He was God in the flesh, but baby Jesus had needs just like every other child. He cried, He spit up, He soiled His diaper just like every other infant.
Luke even goes to pains to show us this. Mary wrapped Him in swaddling clothes just like every other child. Swaddling involved wrapping a long strip of cloth snuggly around a child. It kept them warm, protected their limbs from injury, and gave them a sense of security after making the transition from close quarters in the womb to a wide-open world. The swaddling wasn’t a sign to the shepherds. It was a combination of newborn swaddled baby lying in feeding trough for a cradle.
4. Angels sang to the shepherds
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying …Luke 2:13
The picture is more like a chant, not a song. I figure the shepherds were like me. I usually can’t make out the words to songs very well. I have to look them up on the internet. If God wanted His message communicated clearly, it was probably spoken.
3. The heavenly host resembled a choir
When we think of those angels in our minds they look a lot like a robed choir in the sky. But that’s a mistaken idea. First, the Bible doesn’t say they were floating in the sky, does it? If they appeared to the shepherds it’s just as likely that they were on the ground in plain sight. Second, the word heavenly host has a specific meaning which our modern Bibles have cleaned up. The heavenly host is the army of heaven. Think warriors with body armor and weapons, not girls with halos and harps.
2. The shepherds were all adult males
This will probably come as a complete shock to you, but the shepherds weren’t necessarily the stereotype of our day. In biblical times, most kids could perform adult tasks by about the age of seven. (In our age we’ve extended childhood on up into the 20s.) Nomadic shepherds usually sent their male and female children to lead the flocks. They’d also hire others to help out if they could afford them. This is where the term hireling comes from. The group that saw the angels on this first Christmas was likely a rabble of boys, girls, and a few weather-beaten men.
1. Jesus was born on December 25th
It is very unlikely that the traditional date is correct. The reason being that shepherds tended to stay in the field with their flocks by night from April until November. Cooler, rainy winter weather probably kept them a little closer to home.
This is just speculation, however. Other credible scholars say that the rains of winter may have been what brought the shepherds to Bethlehem because it’s the only time of the year when there’s enough grass for sheep to feed on in that area. Plus, winters are rather mild in that land.
Here’s what we do know. The ancient Church set the date for Christmas on December 25th. They took the date of an already existing Roman festival and incorporated it into Christ. I’ll give you a bit more information in just a moment. This leads to the next point:
There’s no need to put Christ back in Christmas (but in everything else)
It happens like clockwork after Thanksgiving every year. With the shopping madness also comes the guilty message that we need to put Christ back into Christmas. “Let’s not forget the reason for the season” they say. The battle lines are drawn up when public places remove manger scenes and opt for Santa and secular reminders of the holidays. For several years the battle has raged over whether or not the worker at Wal-Mart says “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas.” I say, “Who cares?” (other than Bill O’Reilly)
The reason Christ is being taken out of Christmas is because we have taken Christ out of everything else. There’s a push in our age to separate religious beliefs from every day life. You can have your faith and all will be well as long as you keep it private. Christians are largely following suit. We’re going along to get along.
How different out approach is from the ancient church. Several centuries after Jesus’ birth, the church decided to celebrate His birthday on December 25th. That chose that day because it coincided with the pagan Roman festival dedicated to “Sol Invictus,” the unconquerable sun. The festival took place around winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. The church scheduled Christmas to bring pagans into a relationship with the unconquerable Son. They took a pagan practice, baptized it, and used it as outreach. They wanted to demonstrate that Christianity gave a complete picture to what their hearts desired in the worship of the sun god.
It’s a pattern we should follow. Let’s begin to take our faith to every area of life. Let’s apply our beliefs outside the church walls more consistently. If we’d do that, putting Christ back into Christmas would largely take care of itself.
Peace on earth is not available for all
Another misunderstanding about Christmas is that it’s a time for peace. That’s partly right. Watch most Christmas specials and at some point all of the characters will hold hands and sing songs. Enemies will become friends even if it’s just for a moment on Christmas day.
The Bible never makes this promise. This misunderstanding derives from a bad translation in some of the older versions of the Bible. They put these words into the mouths of the angels:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” Luke 2:14 (KJV)
That sounds nice. It certainly appeals to the secular mind which seeks this kind of peace at no cost. But that’s not what the angels said. It’s better to translate their words:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.” Luke 2:14 (NIV)
The peace the angels offered was not cessation from conflict and war. It was peace with God. You see, our sin makes us enemies with God. The good news of the angels was that Jesus could make reconciliation and peace with God possible. The book of Romans puts it this way:
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5:8-10
Peace comes to those on whom God’s favor, God’s grace, rests. These are the people who have said, “yes” to Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. They have received forgiveness through His sacrifice. They are eternally at peace with God.
What a great segue we have to share our hope this Christmas season. When you’re watching a program or singing a song that deals with the subject of peace on earth, you can turn it to the true meaning. This leads to the big lesson we can learn from the shepherds:
Irreligious people are open to God at Christmas
Shepherds were as irreligious as they came in ancient times. Good religious Jews typically hated them because shepherds rarely attended religious services. For the most part, they couldn’t because shepherding was a 24/7 job. Even if they could, shepherds were ritually unclean most of the time. That’s the price you pay when you hang out with animals. Good religious folks didn’t want them around.
When I was a teenager I worked in a little café in Tyro. One afternoon a couple of guys walked in to order some hotdogs and fries. They were nice enough, but they smelled like a pig sty. I assumed they must have worked on the farm just up the road which often spread pig manure on their fields. I was glad to see them go. I’m sure people felt the same way about shepherds. Morally and spiritually they were considered unclean.
Most people considered them untrustworthy as well. This was due mainly to hirelings, people paid to watch the flocks who didn’t own them. Hirelings were known to graze the animals in other people’s pastures. They had a reputation for taking off with other people’s property in the areas where the sheep grazed. Sometimes they’d even pilfer some of the sheep they were paid to guard. Hirelings were known for running at the first sign of trouble and abandoning the sheep. Unfortunately, this reputation stuck to all shepherds.
What a shock it must have been for Luke’s readers to find that angels appeared to the shepherds first after Christ’s birth. (The only thing more incomprehensible was that God also revealed the birth of His Son to pagan astrologers and magicians in Persia, known as the wise men.) God revealed Himself to the irreligious and they responded with faith. They were open to God’s Spirit all along.
Think about the irreligious people in your life. The people whose faith is questionable. The people whose church attendance is sporadic or nonexistent. The people who you know have never made a profession of faith, but they’re not hostile to it. These people are open to God at this time of year. Don’t let the anti-theists who want to remove every trace of religion from Christmas fool you. Like the hirelings, they’re in the minority. This time of the year opens the heart and prepares people to come to faith, if we’ll only reveal the way. You don’t even need to get in their face about it.
Let me encourage you, as an application point, to invite those who you consider irreligious tonight. Ask those who are drifting or who have never made a commitment to Christ to check out our Christmas program. Here’s what I promise you. They will see Christ. The gospel will be spoken by our young people and adults. His praises will fill this place as we sing those old familiar carols. Then they’ll have time to see Christ in you as we enjoy table fellowship together. They’re open, so extend an invitation. Who knows, they may return home like the shepherds …
“…glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen …” Luke 2:20
