Making Christmas relevant By Aziz-ul Haque

Making Christmas relevant

By Aziz-ul Haque

The word Christmas comes from Old English Cristes maesse and Middle English Christemasse, originally derived from Greek Christos that means ‘the anointed one,’ which is a title of Jesus, and the suffix masse from Latin missa that means festival or feast day or mass. Christmas is also known as Xmas in which the Greek letter X (pronounced as khi) is used as an abbreviation for Christos. Therefore, Christmas is built on the name of Christ and a festival or celebration or mass in his honour. This festival is a commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, who was born about two thousand years ago. Millions of people all over the world celebrate Christmas with great fervour and gaiety.

The Bible is the only reliable source of the Christmas story. Long before the birth of Jesus, the Bible predicted the details of his birth including the place, the nature and the purpose of his coming. Accordingly, in due time, the Virgin Mary who was conceived by the Holy Spirit gave birth to her son in a town called Bethlehem, also known as the City of David, in Palestine. This baby was born in a stable because there was no place for Mary in any house in Bethlehem where she had gone with Joseph from Nazareth, their hometown. The baby was named Jesus because the Bible says, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Therefore, the name Jesus means the Saviour, the one who would save men from the clutches of sin and its power. God gave this name even before his birth.

On the night when Jesus was born, an angel appeared to the shepherds who were watching over their flock in a field and proclaimed to them saying, “I bring you good news of great joy for all people, for unto you is born this day in the City of David, your Saviour, who is Christ the Lord”; after which the angel was joined by many others singing, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men” (Luke 2:10-14).

The shepherds went to Bethlehem and saw the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Therefore, Christmas has universal significance because Jesus was born to be the Saviour of humankind which was the good news for the world. Salvation of humankind was thus the purpose of the birth of Jesus. All through these readings of the Bible, we must have been thinking of the rough simplicity of the birth of Jesus. One might have expected that he would have been born in a palace or a mansion. A story tells about a king who worried his court by often disappearing and walking incognito amongst his people. When his chieftain requested him not to do so for his security's sake, he answered, “I cannot rule my people unless I know how they live”. It is a great thought that we have a God who knows the life we live because he too lived it and claimed no special advantage over common people.

About seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a prophet called Isaiah prophesied that God would send his Christ i.e. the Anointed One, who would born of a virgin, and he would be called the Prince of Peace. Jesus brought peace to humanity by reconciling them with God through his atoning death on the cross. Therefore, the message of Christmas is a message of peace and reconciliation. Here the Biblical understanding of peace is not just the absence of war, conflict or strife: it also means wholeness, completeness, well-being, prosperity and harmonious relationship between man and God and among humankind. The purpose of Christmas or the coming of Jesus Christ was not to establish a new religion but to bring peace and reconciliation to humanity. Because the Bible says, “He is our peace who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility... making peace and reconciling us to God through the cross” (Ephesians 2:14-16).

The message of Christmas has universal relevance down through the ages. The essence of Jesus’ teaching was to love God and to love one another. He never condemned or looked down upon anyone professing other religion or any one of a culture different from him. Rather, he denounced his own religious leaders for their self-righteousness, apartheid, hardness and hypocrisy. Jesus lived with the poor, identified with the downtrodden, feed the hungry, healed the sick, comforted the mourner and died for all. His life and teaching is an irrepressible catalyst for our responsible living - serving God and humanity. Moreover, Christmas symbolizes a very deeply significant truth of the spiritual life. Jesus Christ is the very personification of Divinity. He was born at a time when ignorance, superstition, greed, hatred and hypocrisy prevailed upon the land. Purity was forgotten and morality was neglected. In the midst of these conditions, Christ was born and He helped a transformation in the lives of people. He gave a new and a spiritual turn to the life of man. There came a change upon the land. People started upon a new way of life. Thus a new era dawned for the world. Today, in a world full of strife, anarchy, terrorism, separatism, regionalism and apartheid, the birth festival of Jesus, or Christmas, summons us not only to believe in him but also to be tolerant, forgiving, selfless and compassionate and to spread the message of peace and love in our society. The purpose of Christmas can be realized by our heartfelt devotion to God and selfless duty towards the humanity in working for peace and harmony.

(The writer is the pastor of Guwahati Baptist Church).  THE SENTINEL