Christmas and its Meaning

The Story of Christmas

By Rev. Dr. Emmanuel James

Christmas and its Meaning 

Jesus Christ is the founder of Christianity. His life and teachings form the foundation of Christianity. Nearly 2010 years ago Lord Jesus Christ was born in the town of Bethlehem near Jerusalem, in the land of Israel. Jesus is the incarnate Son of God and as having been divinely conceived by Mary. Christians regard Jesus as God who came into this world in the form of man. He is believed to be: God, Savior, Healer, Prophet, and a wonderful Teacher. Jesus lived during a time when the land of Israel was under the Roman Empire.

What is the true meaning of Christmas?  It seems a little strange because Christmas is so popular and yet people ask this question. We celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day. At the heart of the nativity (birth) narratives of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, is the fact: amid the struggle of a people who had longed for hundreds of years for God to act in the world in new ways, God came to be with them totally identifying himself with human beings. Amid the most unlikely of circumstances, to the most unlikely of people, God became man for the salvation of all people.

God comes into our own human existence to reveal himself and call us to himself. At the birth of Jesus, the Son of God we wonder at the simplicity of its expression in this child in the manger at Bethlehem. It symbolizes that this helpless infant that has nothing of its own by which to survive. But because he is Immanuel, “God with us”, will forever save the world and helpless humanity. It is this same God who has promised to be with us, with his people, with the church and with all humanity.

It is the hope that springs from impossible and insignificant beginnings, infused with the power of God through the Holy Spirit that will blossom into a light to the nations. Today this is the God that we celebrate at Christmas. And we do so with a confidence born from the birth of a child over 2,000 years ago, a child who is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. The meaning of Christmas seems to be in danger of being obscured by all the commotion and commercial promotion of the season. Perhaps we continue to ask the question, “What is the true meaning of Christmas?”  For fear that the answer may be lost.