Christmas means War

“8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.n9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.n10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.n11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.n12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”n13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,n14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” nLuke 2:8-14
For the next couple weeks I’m going to post some of the thoughts pressed on my heart about the Christmas season. For those of you familiar with Advent, we just began the Advent calendar/season this past week. The meaning and deep intention behind Advent is one that all of us should spend some time praying and thinking about. I’m going to post next week on the reason Advent is important and for those unfamiliar with Advent give some basic coverage of why it is so important and why we need to consider observing it with more intentionality as believers.
Anyways, this week I was thinking about our move into the Christmas season meant for Christians today and a quote came to mind that I thought was especially relevant. Russell Moore was quoted in a sermon stating that Christmas is about a time when God wages war against sin. His reference was the truth that we make Christmas about poinsettias, hot cocoa, and holly wreaths when God initiated the event that is Christmas by a desire to defeat sin and its reign over His people.
Sure when the angels showed up in Bethlehem to the shepherds, that seems like a peaceful, miraculous event. And it likely is in the grand scheme of things. However, Jesus coming to earth was not a move made by God intended to help us feel warm and fuzzy inside. The expressions we hear during this time of the year about how much people love the Christmas season and how it has it special feeling is not, ultimately, the reason Christ came to earth. He did not come to give us a warm fuzzy feeling, a neatly decorated Christmas tree, and a house that smells like peppermint. God sent him to wage war against the sin of this world and ultimately defeat it in His death and resurrection. The Christmas season is about war. War against our oppression from Satan. War against the lies and deception of the world. War against the bondage that holds so many of us in chains to addiction and idolatry. That sweet baby boy that laid in the manger so many years ago in Bethlehem wasn’t just a metaphor and a cute picture of the peace to come. He is the substance of our freedom from the terminal consequences of our sin.
If you look at the Scripture above from Luke chapter 2, there’s a very specific phrase stated by the angels that carries so much more weight than our modern culture gives to it. It says that born on to them was “a Savior” who the angels called “Christ, the Lord.” Those two simple descriptions of Jesus carried incredible weight in the day and age of Joseph and Mary. Why would the Jews need a Savior? They needed a Savior because for the last 400 years God had not spoken to them through the prophets. They need a Savior because their culture and their heritage was slowly fading away in the Roman culture and the Hellenistic trends of the day. The once massive kingdom that was united under David and ruled the entire area around it had been conquered, the temple had been burned, and they were living in virtual serfdom to a Roman empire that did not carry the same beliefs and practices that they held so dear to the heart. The Roman empire that ruled them was not a Godly empire and they desired a King and a Savior who would bring them back to power, save them from the oppression of the Roman empire, and restore Israel to its proper place in the world. They needed a Savior because they desired redemption and reconciliation to their original and proper (in their mind) place of power. The shepherds heard Savior and the shepherds thought conquering king.
What’s more, the angels didn’t just stop at calling Jesus, Savior. Their next description of Him was Christ the Lord.nThe word Christ used here in Greek would have been the Greek form of the Hebrew word Messiah. Basically the angel said the baby born in Bethlehem was the awaited Redeemer. The awaited descendent of David. The person they had put so much hope and so much faith in to redeem what they believe to be slavery to Rome. He was the Christ. That’s not an adjective that’s a title. To call someone the Christ is not to describe who they are but to affirm their position as deity. In a much smaller sense it would be like using the term president to describe Barack Obama. The term president is not a description of Obama, it’s a title that affirms his position as president. The Christ is a title that affirms Jesus His position as the Messiah. The Messiah that the Jews were waiting for was not one they expected to come in the form of a baby nor is it one that they expected to to die on a Cross for them. What they expected was a conquering king, coming sword in hand ready to rage war against the Romans, and ultimately restore them back to a place of freedom and power. When Jesus didn’t meet those specific expectations they crucified Him.
Wildly, they missed the point. Jesus was a conquering King. God did send his Son to wage war on behalf of His people. Jesus did come ultimately to shed blood. What they missed was Jesus came for a much bigger problem than Roman occupation. Jesus came for the sins of the world. Not the slavery of the Jews only. Not the conviction of the Gentiles only. He came that He might shed his blood in sacrifice to ultimately wage war against Satan and beat him in His resurrection from the grave. This is the Gospel. This is the war God waged against the evil one and the war He won when Jesus rose from the dead.
This is the good news. Literally the good news that the Angels proclaimed had come in Jesus. Nerdy side note, the two words good news used in Luke 2:10 is the same Greek word from which we derive Gospel. Literally they came to share the Gospel to the shepherds.
Please don’t hear that I am hating on Christmas or family traditions or that one fuzzy feeling we get surrounding the season. I love the season more than any holiday season out there. There is a real joy that seems to under-ride much of what happens over the next month. That joy is rooted in Jesus despite what marketing and culture wants to say. However I think it is important that we don’t lose sight that this season and this holiday was not intended solely as a peaceful, nostalgic, warm fuzzy season. It was the initiation of a physical war that God waged and won against the devil.