The Christian Appeal (December 1999)

I want no kinship with old Ebenezer Scrooge (before his transformation), but I confess I am sometimes a little troubled by the popularity of Christmas in the world. Many people who from January through November have given hardly a thought about Jesus, suddenly in December are celebrating his birth. Before December attending church was not so important, but now that it’s Christmas, everyone seems to be going to church. Before December the sights and sounds appearing on their televisions and radios had very little to do with peace on earth. But now it’s Christmas, and singers and celebrities who spend most of the year marketing immorality and violence are crooning the songs of the Christ child.

Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not at all unhappy with this once a year fascination with the story of Christ’s birth. I know there may be people who have not yet received Christ as Lord who could be moved by the story of the Baby born in a manger and who perhaps will consider placing their faith in Christ.

But, of course, that’s part of the problem isn’t it?

The Christmas story in which Christians believe includes more than just a   cradle; it also includes a cross.

And Christmas without the cross is not really Christmas at all. What attracts so many people to Christmas—the pretty decorations, the beautiful carols, the gift-giving—is not the whole story of Christmas. It’s Christmas with only a cradle.

Christmas with only a cradle makes very little   distinction between angels and reindeers, wise men and snow men. Christmas with only a cradle means front yard manger scenes must make room for old Santa and Rudolph alongside the shepherds. Christmas with only a cradle is an escape from the real world, a fantasy that has little relevance to life between January and November.

What can a baby in a cradle offer those who celebrate Christmas in a war-torn land or beside the graves of their entire family killed in an earthquake?

What good is singing “Silent Night” or “Away in a Manger” when the loved ones you’ve always sung with are no longer here to sing with you?

I have trouble with the popular Christmas, because it is Christmas without a cross. And without the cross, the cradle has very little to offer the world.

On the other hand, I think some folks would like to celebrate the cross without Christmas. Some Christians are uncomfortable with Christmas; they’d just as soon skip it.

“It is not the baby Jesus we worship but the Lord Jesus,” they say. “What is really important is not a manger in Bethlehem, but a hill outside Jerusalem.”

These people almost seem to wish that God had chosen to arrange the coming of Messiah differently. All this attention about the birth is a distraction, they feel. Somehow the thought of the Son of God in diapers takes away from the salvation story.

But of course the Bible does include the cradle, right along with the cross, so it can’t just be ignored. Christmas without a cradle is no more truly Christmas than is Christmas without a cross. The truth is the cross and the cradle are inseparable. We can’t have one without the other, and there is a reason for that. The Scriptures call that reason the curse.

Isaac Watts said it well when he wrote his famous Christmas carol “Joy to the World.” His lyrics remind us that joy is ours not just because the Lord has come and now reigns, but also because he takes away the curse.

“No more let sins and sorrows grow / nor thorns infest the ground; / He comes to make his blessing flow / far as the curse is found.”

The “curse” in that song refers, of course, to Eden and the great tragedy that occurred there when Adam and Eve failed to obey God.

“Cursed is the ground because of you,” God said to the first couple.

Because of Adam’s disobedience, mankind lost paradise. And from that day the world has been plagued with the curse of humanity’s disobedience to God. The world became so stained with sin, God finally had to wash it clean of all the wicked, saving only the righteous man Noah and his family. But it wasn’t long before man’s sin again began to spread.

For a time man could plead ignorance as the memory of God and his righteousness slowly faded with each passing generation after Noah. But then God reveals himself to mankind again. He becomes the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He gradually brings his people back to a knowledge of the holiness of God. And then, with Moses, God reveals himself with an intimacy unknown by humanity since the time of Adam. He tells Moses his Name, “I Am,” a name not known by any of the great patriarchs. He gives Moses his Law which reveals his holiness and the way he wants men and women to live before him. And through Moses, God warns his people that disobedience will result in a curse. Listen to several verses from Deuteronomy that record the words and the warning of Moses to the people.

“See I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God” (11:26-28).

Then Moses and the priests said to all Israel, “Be silent, O Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God. Obey the Lord your God and follow his commands and decrees that I give you today” (27:9-10).

“However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.

“You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

“Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.

“The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

“You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out” (28:15-19).

Yet, in spite of all of God’s warnings, and all of mankind’s efforts to overcome the sinfulness that plagues the human heart, mankind continues to be disobedient to God, and the curse of disobedience continues to grow until finally, in the words of the prophet Daniel, God’s people cry out for help!

“O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. “Lord you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame. . . . All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.

“Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. . . .

“Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.

“Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name” (Daniel 9).

Daniel cries out in anguish because of the curse under which he and his people are suffering. The Lord answers Daniel and reveals that the time will come when the Anointed One, the Messiah, will deliver Israel from the curse and its terrible effects and will replace it with peace and goodwill for all men.

For Daniel, the result of the curse of disobedience was the desolation of the city of Jerusalem, the destruction of God’s holy temple, and the banishment into captivity of his people. Thus the Messiah Daniel and his people looked for was a glorious warrior who would be given by God the authority and sovereign power to conquer and rule all nations.

But the terrible curse upon mankind could not be done away with by simply dispatching another Joshua or David to lead Israel in military triumph and restore the holy city of Jerusalem. It was not their city that was most  in need of restoration; the greatest work of restoration needed to be undertaken in their hearts. The desolation that God had allowed to come on Jerusalem was only a picture of what had happened to mankind. The real sanctuary that had been desolated was the sanctuary of their hearts. Indeed, the Messiah would come and save God’s people, but he would not come as a mighty warrior. The curse required a different, and stronger, kind of deliverance.

Here lies the secret of Christmas, its true meaning. It is in how Messiah comes, how Messiah breaks the curse.

Yes, for Messiah to save man a cross is required, but first there must be a cradle. There can be no cross without Christmas. Why? Because Christmas is all about

God becoming man, and the only way God can save man is for God to become man. Listen to the writer of Hebrews and you will begin to see in his words the real meaning of Christmas:

In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family . . . .

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity . . . . [Christ] had to be made like his brothers in every way . . . that he might make atonement for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2).

The only way we could be saved from the curse was for God to become flesh and blood, to share our humanity, to be made like us in every way.

How many people do you know who have not been born?

How can anyone be a man who has not first been a baby?

The Son of God had to be made like a son of man; to dispel the curse of man’s disobedience, the Son of Mary had to learn obedience. He had to be made a perfect sacrifice, the firstborn of many brethren, the firstfruits of righteousness, the choicest Lamb without spot or blemish. To be a perfect sacrifice he had to be a perfect man, and the only way to be a perfect man was to be born a baby and experience all that it means to be human.

He must understand the helplessness and weakness of the human condition.

He must suffer the way humans suffer.

His heart must be broken by the same things that break our human hearts (like the death of a close friend such as Lazarus). His spirit must be discouraged by the same things that discourage our spirits (like the betrayal of a trusted associate like Judas). His faith must be shaken by the same despair that shakes our faith (like the despair he felt in Gethsemane when he prayed, “Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me”).

From man’s point of view, the Christmas story begins with a glorious birth. But from Christ’s point of view, that birth was the beginning of his sacrifice. The story of Christmas does not begin in Bethlehem, but in heaven with a conversation between the Father and the Son.

“[A] body you prepared for me . . . .  I have come to do your will, O God” (Hebrews 10).

For us, the story is about a bright star shining in the midnight sky in Bethlehem, but Christ knew the story would go on to tell of a heavy darkness falling on the earth at midday in Jerusalem.

For the shepherds Christmas was all about angels in the heavens announcing peace on earth, goodwill to men, but Christ understood  that having peace between heaven and earth would mean the shedding of his blood on the cross.

This is what Paul emphasizes in his version of the Christmas story. He says nothing of shepherds, angels, or kings. He simply says that Christ emptied himself. He “humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8).

Paul understood that Christmas was the beginning of Christ’s humbling, his obedience. For the very Creator of the  universe, the One for whom the morning stars sang, the cradle was no less obedience than the cross. The cradle was the beginning of the cross.

The cradle was very much like the cross. At both, Jesus voluntarily submits his life into the hands of men. At the cross, no man took Jesus’ life, he laid it down. At the cradle, no man gave Jesus life, he was born of a virgin, by the Spirit of God. At the cradle and at the cross, Jesus cries out in anguish—first a baby’s helpless cry for his mother and later a son’s forsaken cry for his father.

Christmas without the cross of Christ only amounts to sentimental holiday specials on television and cute manger scenes in the mall. Without the cross, the cradle has nothing to offer humanity because for the curse to be removed there must be the sacrifice on the cross. But the cross without the cradle is incomplete, too. Without

Christmas, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was not perfect, for without the cradle, Christ is not part of our human family. And the cross without Christmas could save no one.

Christmas reminds us that our salvation was accomplished not by some divine warrior sweeping in from the heavens with his celestial cavalry, but  by a Baby born in a manger whose destiny was Calvary.

Christmas is the story of the cradle. It comes in between the stories of the curse and the cross. Without the curse, there is no need for the cradle. Without the cradle, there is no meaning in the cross. And without the cross, there is no end to the curse. All three are needed.

Because of all three, we look forward to being reunited in Paradise with our Savior and our God where the River of Life flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb . . . and on each side of the river stands the Tree of Life whose leaves are the healing of the nations and where John says, “There is no curse,” and we shall reign with our Lord forever.

So when you sit down this holiday season to tell the Christmas story, be sure not to leave out any important parts. Tell the whole story of a curse in Eden, a cradle in Bethlehem, and a cross in Jerusalem.

Copyright © 2001 The Christian Appeal