Reducing Jesus to Accommodate the World

 #1800

(Christmas 2015)

"Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 'Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, 'God with us.'" (Matthew 1:22)

This writer, on one of his three trips to the "Holy Land", spent Christmas Eve, 1965, in Bethlehem. This was, for this Christian farm-boy, the experience of a lifetime.

Arrows from a bow always fly in the same direction. The Christian heart is only softened by the knowledge that the skies of Bethlehem were very much the same on my night there as they were on the night that our blessed Lord first breathed life there. It was very cold. The stars were unusually bright (this blind writer had some eyesight at that time). Another writer, Victor Hugo, said, “If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.”

God's word tells us that just as He brought something-ness from nothingness in Creation with oratorical elegance (probably millions of angels in song), He brought the light of the world, Jesus, into being by God putting on a tent of human flesh. The light of the world had come to live among us.  

The next day, Christmas day, 1965, my guide led me to the church of the nativity (The church of the nativity is built "supposedly" over the birthplace of the greatest event in the history of the world. I had to crawl through a small opening in order to enter the church. The great doors of the church had been nailed shut many years ago, because Muslim hordes had ridden their horses inside the church in order to desecrate it. Islamist's still control all of the areas around this town; just 5 miles from Jerusalem. At one time, many Christians lived on the West Bank. Most have fled to Australia and Canada. One young, sleepy Arab soldier, guarded the church). I went down the steps to the cave- the stable where the animals were kept. A few other Christian pilgrims were there on this Christmas morning. I joined them in weeping over the lowly place where my Savior was born.

Thinking all the time about the palaces and fine homes which this world traveler had seen all around the world, mostly in countries where there is no pretension of Christianity, such as India (where in Islamabad I visited a Maharajah palace), where even the walls were covered with precious stones, I thought of my own humble birthplace- a clapboard house on a dirt road without heat, running water, or any of the conveniences of modern life; like this cave, on a dirt road. Surely, some comfort should be taken by Christians in the knowledge that those who have the most things in this life have the least. Remember, the first to whom God announced the birth of His Son, were the poorest of the poor, lowly shepherds. Shepherds were not even allowed to enter the temple, or give testimony in court. In a land of water scarcity, most of these shepherds had never had their first bath. They smelled. Their only articles of clothing were filthy. Yet, God invited them to hear the first cries of God in this universe... the cries of a baby.

When you have the new birth of Jesus in your heart, you will never hear the sound of a baby the same way again. When you have the new birth of Jesus in your heart, mind, and soul, you will never look upon the poor, disabled, and lost the same way again. Is it not significant that these lowly shepherds did not reduce Jesus to accommodate the world around them? On that day, they did not care what the world thought about them. Rather, they went forth to tell the world what they had seen. Can you even imagine how scared they were when God presented, with great "fanfare", the millions, perhaps billions, of the heavenly hosts singing about God's Son who had come to bring light into a world of darkness?

Of course, Herod wanted to kill Jesus. I will never understand the sorrow of the mother's who lost their son's in Herod's attempt to kill Jesus. BUT, God is boss. He is in charge. I have never understood why God insisted on the Israelite's, who left the wilderness and crossed the Jordan on dry land to claim the promised land directed those chosen to inherit it, to kill all of the seven tribes who lived there- including their children. BUT, every time a nation or an individual refuses to follow the instructions of God, we live to regret it. 

Someone asked philosopher/ writer Bertrand Russell, "Why do you not believe in God?" Russell said he had not been given enough evidence. From the history of the world ("Don't touch that tree"), and every other instruction from God found in His book, we have the proof of what happens when nations, or men, do not obey God. You, and those you love, live to regret it. 

In this writer's lifetime (85 years), I have seen what happens with people, and nation's, when they do not obey God. We have now reached a place in the "so-called" Christmas observance that the world refers to the nativity scenes (manger with a baby, Mary and Joseph, and shepherds) as the negativity scene. Atheism, communism, and modernism wants Christianity erased from the public square. Unbelievers want Christians "in the closet". They want the Christmas message restricted to the church house. 

The tragedy of the Christian message of Christ's birth being restricted to the church house, lawn of the courthouse, entertainment festivity of the schoolhouse, or perhaps the spending and spreeing of your house, is that the name of Jesus is not glorified. The heartbreak of a real Christian is the pretending, performing bearers of Christ's name (Christians) just playing games with God... even the birth date of His "only Begotten Son". We know from every historical and scientific fact that Jesus was born in September. However, the Catholic church (as was the case with Easter) took on the pagan celebration of these events. Would God allow a Christmas tree in His worship sanctuary? Jeremiah 10: 2-4 says, "Thus saith the LORD, 'Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.'" Even pew-warmers, and modernistic pastors, should be ashamed of the getting and giving that goes on in the name of Christmas... borrowing money to buy things that people do not want... spending and spreeing, partying and participating, with the paganism of the world. Please tell this old man, who observes the Lord's table every day of his life, why the Christian does not follow the simple instruction's of the Lord to remember Him, and His sacrifice at His table?

God, help real Christians to remember Jesus as He instructed. Not in the profanity of a Holy Day turned holiday- reducing Jesus to accommodate the world.