Why celebrate the birth of Christ?
This year’s Christmas advert from Marks and Spencer asks the question what is the ‘must have’ which ‘makes Christmas, Christmas’? The advert’s answers to this question include lights, parties and various types of women’s underwear, but from a Christian perspective all these answers miss the one ‘must have’ which genuinely ‘makes Christmas, Christmas,’ which is the birth of Jesus Christ.
For Christians the whole point of Christmas is to celebrate Jesus being born as a human being in Bethlehem from the Virgin Mary. From a Christian point of view to celebrate Christmas without celebrating Jesus’ birth, is to have an event that is missing its essential element. It is like having a feast with no food to eat, a coronation with no one to crown, or an election with no one to elect.
When Christians say that the point of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ this leads, of course, to the response ‘Why is this birth worth celebrating’?
Why the birth of Christ is the Christmas ‘must have.’
As human beings we can get by quite happily with the things that are sold by Marks and Spencer and other similar retailers. Having what they sell is not a necessary part of our human existence.
However, in order for us to achieve the end for which God created us we do need Christ to have become incarnate, and therefore for the birth in Bethlehem to have taken place. Without the incarnation and the birth that was an integral part of it we would have remained trapped forever by our fallen natures, unable to defeat sin and death and unable to share the life of God. Only the Son of God taking our humanity upon himself enabled these things to happen. For that reason his birth is the one essential ‘must have’ for all human beings, not only at Christmas, but always. We don’t need Christmas lights, parties and gifts, but we do need Jesus Christ and Christians are right to celebrate his birth.
Martin Davie's full post, looker in greater detail about why the birth of Christ is the Christmas 'must have', can be found on his blog.