Every
Christmas season, any number of films and telecasts reflect on “the true
meaning of Christmas,” from the 4 billionth broadcast of It’s a Wonderful Life to the “you can’t miss this very special
Christmas episode” of some lame sitcom.
Based on popular programming, one might conclude the “true meaning of
Christmas,” has to do with sharing our
toys, being nice to grumpy people, and remembering that we’re all significant
in our own way.
Not that
I’m against sharing, being nice, or having a healthy self image. And I’d hate to admit how often I’ve seen It’s a Wonderful Life. But honestly! Christmas is quite a bit more than a holiday
version of a
One might
expect the primary truth about God is that God is completely unlike us… transcendent,
ethereal, utterly other, totally spiritual, fuzzy. But the very center of Christianity is that
God became one of us. Not just similar
to us – but exactly one of us. God was
born a human being. Utterly
the same as the rest of us.
Totally flesh. Concrete
and specific. A
man with a name, an address, relatives, friends, neighbors, enemies. A man with a birthdate. A man with a mother. A man who died.
In the
first centuries after the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the early
church struggled to understand exactly who Jesus was. Some said he was the greatest of all
men. Others said he couldn’t possibly be
a real human being, because the infinite, spiritual God could not become a
finite, fleshly human. But the overwhelming
and relentless conclusion of Christianity was and still is this: God
just isn’t what one might expect. God
became one of us. In
every way (apart from the amazing fact that Jesus continually refrained from making
the sinful choices that we continue to make).
Christmas
calls us to expect the unexpected! Doesn’t
it make you wonder? Don’t you wonder
what other unexpected surprises might God have in store for us?
The Lord be with you (Emmanuel)!