I wrote in a post from December of 2018 how Christmas....the birth of Christ....is as an overture....a beginning....in the life and the death and the resurrection and the ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The joyful music setting the mood through the Incarnation. God took on flesh! I posted at that time....
"Friends....do not think of a baby in a crib in a manger....for if you were to stand in the presence of Jesus today you would probably be blinded....and dropped to the ground with no strength to even look up. A baby would be the last thing in your mind. You would not be able to move unless a hand were placed upon you....giving you strength....where you would then need to hear the command....fear not!"
This overture is beautiful.....and the mystery is so grand that it is beyond our mere human intellect. Christ could not have atoned for sin without at first being a babe in a manger. I wrote in that same post....
"A baby was born....that baby grew up....and the same angels who thirty-three years earlier had rejoiced....obediently stood aside....probably in rage....as the God/Man who that baby became....had His flesh ripped apart....as demons rejoiced. Then the single biggest event this entire universe has ever experienced....or will ever experience....happened. Christ was risen....and the farthest star away from earth....whether it be billions or trillions of light-years away....and every atom contained within it....every electron charge....somehow acknowledged the event surrounding its Creator."
The point that I was trying to make was that the birth of Christ....alone....without the main body of divinity....does not possess redemption. It does not convict the conscience. The unregenerate love the day because there is no threat within it anywhere. It asks nothing....and of itself provides nothing....but that is what we have constructed. I also wrote previously....
"A baby was born....and the angels rejoiced....it was the overture....to be followed by choruses....and arias....and cantatas....and every imaginable orchestral arrangement....leading up to a grand finale that the angels are preparing for right now! So yes....Merry Christmas.....for it was a wonderful overture....but the Composer has left the greatest audiological masterpiece for the grand finale."
December 25 is no longer a holy day....if it ever was one....but a holiday....a family day. We sit down....as in a theater....not for an opera or a symphony orchestra....but only for an overture. By itself it loses its real importance. It fits in perfectly with a Christianity where just dying is all that is needed to go to heaven.
This year is that....one-in-seven year....where Christmas falls on the Lord's Day....double indemnity....where we pay twice....once for bifurcating the covenant of redemption....dividing Christ's birth from His death and resurrection....and again for cancelling....for a week in church....(if not the whole month of December)....the cross of Christ....(if it was ever there to begin with)....so that the overture can be performed.
Note: In the post below this....at the end....are two sermons that you can easily Google....to see how Christmas can be celebrated....and preached....as in the entire Gospel of Luke.
