Jesus at Christmas, and some insights...

I had to ask myself, what is Christmas about, really? I've been to church 5 times in 3 days and a lot of lovely things were said but I couldn't see everything adding up. We have God in Jesus being born, finally, after 4000 odd years of waiting, and on the other, after 2000 years we give gifts and sit around a tree, eating turkey and hoping some family time is established. So 1 (God) + 2 (Problem) + 3 (Israel tasked with restoration) + 4 (Jesus starting what Israel started) = 5

There's plenty missing.

This post grabbed my attention somewhat. But I think there's so much more to the Christmas story. The celebrations that happen make no sense. They sit with a conversion of a pagan festival, some use of an old viking character and mixing him with a good saint. There isn't enough of Jesus to make it worth while. On top of that, Jesus wasn't even born in the winter months. If the Shepherds were out in the fields then it would have had to have been sometime between April and October. So that adds to the oddness of all this season throws at us. Enough of the complaints you hear say that the Christmas season has lost it's meaning when, if you look at all that's going on, there isn't any meaning to it. Some could say peace, love and joy, but that's not solely a Christian sentiment. It's a general religious sentiment that has established most religions. This season has at some level that magical fairy story edge to it all. It's of the truth of prophecies and the realisation of God putting into motion the final pieces of a chess game where the opposition, no matter how well he thought he was doing, realises the last moves he makes are futile.

But that is what the season and celebrations represent. The Christmas story found in Matthew and Luke, with some alternate angles from John, has some key elements that put the birth of the universal Saviour into the steps of someone who live out a purely prophetic life in every way. Leaving a trail that can only point to Jesus as the one True God in Human form heading for the ultimate penalty to give His life as a ransom for many. etc. etc.

It begins in the temple. Zechariah (or Zacharias), some priest of the second temple in Jerusalem, was visited by Gabriel, and angel. He said to Zak that his barren wife would give birth. He didn't believe it and so, as is Yahweh's wonderful sense of humour, he was struck dumb. He couldn't speak. It could have been worse, though. Unbelief can be deadly. But this reflects the beginnings of the nation of Israel whose God is of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These three, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, had married women who were barren. Which wasn't something to be proud of in them days. But, because this was going to be the nation of God not man, God did what He wanted and gave these three barren women the ability to bare children and give birth. So for three generations starting the nation of redemptive history, God was the instigator of the next. As is the case 3000 or so years on, Zechariah starts the preparation of this new remarkable story with the same story as Israel had begun.

We briefly stop off at a small hut. And this is all the more miraculous. Gabriel, not one to be given a lot of work, but clearly key for speaking for God when the prophets had died away, visits a teenage girl and tells her that she will be 'with child.' She says 'I'm not married,' which meant in those days 'I haven't done anything that would make it that way, and I'm not planning to until I get married to my partner to be, Joseph.' This is something that shows how this event is leading to the climax of Yahweh's redemptive plan. After Adam had condemned the world through disobeying God, Yahweh was going to use Israel to undo what Adam had done. The descendants of Abraham, from the line of king David was the key to it all. And it wasn't to save itself, but to save the world. This is how redemptive history is developing, and it starts again through the preparation of Zechariah's wife giving birth, who will prepare the way of the Lord; John the Baptist's cousin, Jesus the Christ.

In Bethlehem is where the truly significant stuff takes place. Beside Jesus being born, Gabriel takes a few of his friends out and sings to some shepherd telling them to go visit this new born King. The shepherds on the field will not have been picked because they were the only bunch of people outside at night. It's a prophetic symbol. Yahweh in the old testament is referred to as a shepherd of His people a number of times, and Jesus refers to Himself as a shepherd as well. The shepherds are prophetically chosen to show God's purposes in the birth of this youngling. On top of that they bring with them another prophetic symbol. A lamb. This is another representative symbol of Jesus. Jesus who is known in heaven as the lamb that was slain. It is a symbol of His death, as the shepherd is a symbol of His love so wide that He would go out of His way to find His lost sheep. Self sacrificial symbols and all He's done is lie in a manger,

Then some visitors arrive. Another number of prophetic symbols, visiting the King and representing Him at the same time. Some wise men arrive with 3 gifts, They're sometimes called kings, which is the first prophetically minded detail; seeing as Jesus is the new born King as told by Gabriel the angel. Wise men would mean they have wisdom, looking deeply into word of God and discovering that a sign would be certainly seen. They saw a light to follow, but it is the wisdom I am interested in. Jesus lived a life of wisdom prophetically living out the purposes of God, as these wise men, these magi, are doing the same thing, representing the walk Jesus began. They brought some gifts, Gold for His royalty, frankincense for His religious place in the history of His people, and myrrh for His eventual death, burial, and resurrection.

And we finish back in the temple. A guy called Simeon, a priest, had been promised he would see the Son of God before he saw death. He did and committed the rituals necessary for any new Jewish son. The Jewish law states: "Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord." This is symbolic, or even prophetic of the setting apart of Jesus for His ministry. A lot went on and a lot of special things took place. But in all the events surrounding Jesus birth, Yahweh's incarnation or embodiment in the world, there were probably a maximum of 15-20 people who really knew the significance. I had always thought why people thought Jesus was being ridiculous when He started His ministry after so much surrounding His birth, so much expectation. But when we look at the people who really knew what was going on, Mary and Joseph would have kept it quiet with a pregnancy outside of wedlock, Elisabeth, who knew Mary's child was significant, would have been more overwhelmed with her own womb being full of a child when she had been barren so many years, and the shepherds were local to Bethlehem, rather than Nazareth.

I'm still not sure the purpose of the celebrations when we try to make it a Christian festival and yet nothing of the 'traditions' bring anything to mind. This Christmas I have missed God a lot more than others, even though I have heard many good things said. Nothing helps me connect the two; the traditions and Jesus birth. Anywhooo

Merry Christmas.