“8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the
continuing debt to love one another…” (Romans 13:8, NIV).
So Christmas
is upon us again, that wonderful time of year where we get to celebrate with
family, join in on amazing Christmas traditions like carols nights, and turkey
and glazed ham and open presents. Oh the presents, for some people, especially
younger people, so many presents, present’s galore.
Gift giving
is one of the great traditions of Christmas, and it even predates the Christian
celebration of the birth of Jesus. In Yuletide in northern Europe people gave
each other presents. In pagan Rome people gave each other presents. Indeed if
you remember the Christmas story well you will know that several Magi, from the
East (aka from a pagan nation, likely Babylon) came to Jesus’ birth place,
Bethlehem, bearing gifts. Gifts are a wonderful expression of human generosity
and human selflessness. They allow us to express our care for others in a
tangible and solid way, and they allow us to shower blessings on, and increase the
joy of, those we care about, at least for a time. There are even wonderful
opportunities to give gifts to complete strangers on the other side of the
world through charitable organizations.
But if I said that this gift giving experience was only positive, we all know that would not be true. Gift giving is a wonderful opportunity to bless someone else. But in our modern
society it has been turned into an opportunity for showmanship, braggadocio and
worst of all, it has become a trap that sends people into further and further
debt every year. A rather confronting meme has been making its rounds online,
and though it is a harsh image, I think it says something powerful about what
Christmas is and isn’t. It is a picture of someone who is cutting their wrists
with a credit card, and their blood is flowing down to a wrapped present and
landing in the shape of a bow. These words accompany the picture: “No holiday
should manipulate you to the point where you’re going into debt just to show
someone you love them.” It’s a confronting picture and a powerful message, but
I do not view it as an anti-Christmas message.
You see the
message of Christmas is not supposed to be, and never really was, go into debt
to blow your children’s minds with what you can give them. I understand the
desire to want to give your children good things, and if you can afford much by
all means give to your hearts content. I also understand the idea that we don’t
want to appear stingy, and I think some people do compete with others with the
amount they give their children for Christmas. But this is not what Christmas
was ever meant to be about or should be about. We cannot let Christmas get
co-opted by the mercantile nature of those who just want to turn it into money
making enterprise. I think something inside of all of us is repulsed at the way
Christmas has become so much about money and things. We understand there is
more to life than this, and we want to experience those other aspects of joy
that don’t come through money. And that’s what the true meaning of Christmas
actually points to.
You see the
message of Christmas is not go into debt, it is this: you can have your debts
paid. I don’t mean someone else will literally pay your credit card debt
(though how cool would that be, but also how bad for us would this be if it
kept happening?). I mean the message of the Christmas is that there is a God
who loves you, no matter how many or how few possessions you have. There is a
God who wants you to have a chance to know him. A God who we have all sinned
against, who instead of just sitting in the sky looking for a chance to judge
us, actually makes a way for our record of sinful debts to be cleared. You know
those sins, those mistakes that keep us up at night? The ones that weigh on our
mind and steal sleep from us? Those hurts we have inflicted on others and feel
terrible guilt about? You know those deep wounds that no amount of retail
therapy can actually heal? Jesus offers us salvation, in others words to pay
our debt of sin, and clear our slate.
The way he
did this was by sending his son to become a small child, Jesus, who was born in
a manger, who lived a perfect life, the life we cannot live. This child became
the grown man Jesus who then died on our behalf taking the punishment we
deserved, and that he didn’t deserve, and he did this willingly. Then he rose
to life again, so that anyone who wants to trust in him can have the eternal
life he achieved.
The message
of Christmas is not: get into debt to impress. It is this: God wants to pay our
debts, that we owe him. He wants to free us from our guilt and shame through
forgiveness.
In other word’s
the message of Christmas has been directly inverted by our culture. And this is
sad. I encourage you to remember the free gift of salvation that God offers us.
The free gift that he promises to all who believe in him. How much more awesome
does that gift sound? To me it sounds so much better than the sound of the cash
register ringing, or the credit card machine swiping. It also feels better to
experience the free gifts of salvation than the terrible regret so many people
experience in January when they realize how much they have spent, and how empty
they still feel, and how much debt they now owe.
Possessions
won’t satisfy, but God offers us something better. That’s the message of
Christmas, as the wonderful Harry Belafonte Christmas songs says: “And man
shall live forevermore, because of Christmas day…”
