Another Christmas has come. Sociologists tell us that Christmas is a time of intensified depression, conflict and loneliness. For many in this society Christmas has become just that. Some poor people living under some bridge, looking at all the glitter of our commercial Christmas, might just say with the Old Scrooge, “Bah, humbug.” Not only the homeless or the poor who do not dare to see the inside of a Target or T.J. Max, but also for many others Christmas has become a miserable bah, humbug during this time of ongoing recession. Many have embarked on this Christmas season, struggling with many humbug feelings. Old people in retirement homes with grown up children who have moved far away are left with memories of Christmases long ago and often with a lonely heart ache. Families that have suffered job loss in this time of recession or a single parent struggling to make ends meet might find a list for Santa written by a child’s hand too much to keep this year. Many parents as a result may end up feeling remorseful and even inadequate. And a man or a woman whose spouse is gone either through divorce or through death, sometimes is left with photographs and memories, and Christmas cards from the past. To people like these and many others who have lost loved ones or are single or are terminally ill, Christmas time advertised as happy times with friends and families, as a time to eat good and feel good might not feel so good after all. Therefore, the question is how do we make Christmas truly joyful for all of us and not just for a certain section of the people? The only way to do it is to understand for whom Christmas came and why Christmas came.
We make the mistake of thinking that Christmas comes for happy and wealthy people, people with families and someone to kiss under the mistletoe. But that is not what the Christmas story in the Bible tells us. Christmas did not come to a people living in joy and prosperity, but to the people of Israel living under the tyranny of Rome. In Luke 2:8 we read that Christmas came to shepherds who belonged to a lower class in Israel and thus were representatives of the poor and the humble. In Luke 2:36-38 we read that God did not send the good news of Christmas to a perfect family, but Christmas came carried in mother Mary’s lap to a widow named Anna who was neither wealthy nor privileged nor had a husband to kiss under the mistletoe. Christmas came especially for people such as these, people who were suffering. Just as Christmas came to the shepherds and the poor widow named Anna with a message of hope Christmas comes to us every year not to make wealthy people wealthier or happy people happier, although it may seem like that in our world of misplaced priorities, but Christmas comes as an act of God from beyond to bring hope to those who have no hope. Christmas is all about the light of God coming down in a dark world of tyranny, poverty and despair to bring redemption and hope. For that reason God did not send His angels to the wealthy but to the poor shepherds out in the field with the good news of great joy, because they were the ones who needed it most and because they were the ones along with the widow Anna who could grasp the true meaning of Christmas and rejoice.
Joni Eareckson Tada, once an all American girl became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down from a diving accident in Chesapeake Bay at the age of 17. After a bout with depression, bitterness and anger towards God Joni through the power of friends, families and the Bible began to trust God again. Today she runs a ministry called “Joni and Friends” for the support of people with disabilities, and she says, “The Bible speaks of our bodies being glorified in heaven…I now know the meaning of being ‘glorified.’ It’s the time after my death here, when I’ll be on my feet dancing.” That’s what Christmas bring to people, hope, because wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manager lies the true gift of Christmas, Jesus Christ. The one about whom the angels sang to the poor shepherds out in the field as the Savior born in Bethlehem, and the one in whose face the widow Anna beheld the salvation and redemption of God for the oppressed people of Israel. He is the one who would raise the dead and return them to their grieving families. He is the one who would make the blind see once again the colors of the rainbow, make the lame dance with joy and the mute sing glory to God in the highest. He alone is the true gift of Christmas, because He is the only hope that God offers to humanity living in the grip of pain, sorrow, death, sickness and hopelessness. Therefore, if anyone is struggling today, anyone without a job or money, anyone who has lost a loved one, anyone bedridden with sickness, that anyone is not outside of the joy and the celebration of this season. In fact, the true gift of Christmas came specifically for that anyone like it did for Anna, Christmas came for suffering people and Christmas came to bring the light of Christ that drowns out our darkness.
Merry Christmas!
