The Essence Of Christmas Series

It’s three weeks and just twenty-one days until Christmas. Christmas is so exciting for so many reasons: students are soon to be out of school, teachers are soon to be off from school, and lights are everywhere. Who doesn’t like presents for everyone brimming from underneath a Christmas tree? Andy Williams captured the sentiment of the season for many of us:

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

With the kids jingle belling

And everyone telling you be of good cheer

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

It’s the hap-happiest season of all

With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings

When friends come to call

It’s the hap-happiest season of all.

Today, Christmas is a worldwide phenomenon observed in a million ways every year by billions of people. Churches will celebrate Christmas with candlelight celebrations to pageants to even live nativities with many of the animals that witnessed the first Christmas. Christmas has come a long way.

Go with me to the Louvre in Paris, France, for a moment. Two years ago, an anonymous bidder paid $98,000 to see the Mona Lisa out of her display case at Paris’ Louvre museum. This bidder was able to get up close to the famous painting with the thick layer of bulletproof glass and all the barriers set up to protect the Mona Lisa. The Louvre described the experience this way: “You will be able to look straight into the eyes of the Mona Lisa and admire this iconic work from up close. The magical experience will continue with a private tour of the Italian masterpieces … Leonardo da Vinci [and] Raphael.” Surely paying $98,000 just to see something even as great as the Mona Lisa at its essence and without any filters is a bit much.

Sometimes you want to see something just as it is, at its essence. Sometimes the layers of Christmas can be more like barnacles on a ship that needs to be removed in order to see the essence of Christmas. As fun as Christmas trees and winter breaks are, you need to see the essence of Christmas. Let’s peel back the layers of our Christmas in order to understand the essence of Christmas.

Today’s Scripture

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).

Sixty years after the first Christmas and 1,400 miles away from the birthplace of Jesus, Paul mentions why the birth of Jesus is important. To put that in perspective, Toronto, Canada, is a little over 1,219 miles from Fort Worth. Could we really think that a birth in Toronto some sixty years ago impact us here and now? Paul shows us how the message of Christmas can impact us no matter how far away we are from Bethlehem.

One scholar called this piece of writing “one of Paul’s finest hours.” Modern New Testament scholars believe Paul is quoting an ancient hymn. I think you would agree that there’s so much going on here in this passage. This is a mountain peak passage in the New Testament and the Bible itself. It’s pretty heady stuff, after all – Jesus emptying Himself and taking the form of a servant. Who am I to tackle such a beautiful, moving passage?

I feel like the guy who thought that five was his special number. He was born on 5-5-1955. He lived on 55th Avenue. He had five children and five cats. One day he went to the horse races. He put his life savings – $50,000 – on horse #5, and you guessed it … it came in fifth!

In front of a beautiful passage such as this one, I feel a lot like that guy! Explaining Jesus is Impossible but Necessary. Yes, to explain Jesus Christ is impossible. But to ignore Him is disastrous. And to refuse Him is fatal. My speech is too limited to describe Him; my human mind is too finite to comprehend Him, and my heart is too small to contain all the love that this one Lord Jesus has.

Despite this, we need to pull back the curtain to view the glory Jesus laid aside for a while for the health of our spiritual lives.