1. The Birth of Jesus Should Be Celebrated.
The birth of Jesus is a very important event. The gospel of Luke dedicates two whole chapters to the birth of Jesus, more than any other. It also contains much more detail surrounding this miraculous event. Consider this: At the birth of Jesus, who celebrated?
a. The angels. (Luke 2:13-14)
b. The Shepherds (Luke 2:20)
c. Simeon (Luke 2:28)
d. Anna (Luke 2:38)
Mathew’s Gospel even records wise men from the east coming a couple of years later to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Jews did not typically celebrate birthdays, but this joyous birthday received quite the celebration. It was most assuredly an important event that changed the destiny of mankind. We must celebrate it today for it gives us the same hope that it gave them; true life in the Lord’s Christ. The question is not whether we celebrate the Messiah’s coming but how we celebrate the Messiah’s coming.
2. The Bible does not prohibit the influence of culture but actually appeals to it on some occasions.
Many object to the use of secular things to celebrate the religious. This is unbiblical. In the letter to the Corinthians, Paul faces a cultural issue. Should women be allowed to uncover their heads during a worship service? Paul boldly taught that women and men are the same before God, the only distinction being in role and function, not in importance or equality. So, the seeming answer would be that women did not need to act any differently in a worship service than the men did. However, this is not the answer the Paul gave. He appealed to their culture.
“Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?... But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice…” (1 Corinthians 11:13, 14)
Paul tells them to judge for themselves whether or not this is proper and concludes by giving them an interesting answer—this is the way everyone does it. In both of his answers, he appeals to the culture in which his audience lives. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Paul is, in fact, giving us a clear example of how Christian worshipers should follow along with cultural standards where they don’t break biblical law.
This being the case, using “secular” means of celebration is not wrong. It is, in fact, biblical. Consider one more example. A close study of the Old Testament and other Jewish writings will reveal that Jews nearly always named a child when it was born. It was the Greeks who had the practice of naming the child eight to ten days after birth. By the time of the New Testament, we see that both John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ are named not at birth, but eight days later (at their circumsicion) instead of in the traditional Jewish way. The Greek culture affected the naming of Jesus, and it was not condemned. No one even mentioned that it was out of the ordinary. Clearly, cultural influences are not wrong when they do not take away from the glory of God. Our American culture can and should affect the way we worship so long as nothing we do takes away from the glory of God.
3. Trees and other objects of creation are used in religious observance in the Bible.
Consider three examples:
1. The Temple Sacrifices
Within the Temple itself, the walls had trees engraved on them (2 Chronicles 3:5). They were to symbolize the idea of being in the Garden of Eden. Palm trees were considered very important because of these engravings. So much so that when the Maccabees won political independence during the Intertestamental period that they went around the city waving Palm branches to celebrate.
2. The Triumphal Entry
When Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time, he is greeted with people waving palm branches in laying them on the ground. Again, trees are used to celebrate something. Why the Palm Tree? That is what they had. If the holy land had been in Mississippi, they would have used pine branches. The culture and the environment both affected how they celebrated.
3. The Altar Stones
When God gave the people of Israel instruction to build an altar in the book of Deuteronomy, he told them to use stones but not to cut them or shape them (Deut. 27:5). Why would God want them to do it this way? The pagan nations cut their stones. He wanted them to be different from the pagan nations. They turned their stones into idols of worship, places to sacrifice children, or to have sex. He didn’t want the people of Israel following down that path. But, they still used an object of creation. It was how they used them that mattered, not whether or not they could use them.
The same is true for Christmas trees. We can certainly use any part of creation to help us celebrate God. It is how we use it that is important. Are we doing the same things as the nations were in Israel’s day? Are we making the Christmas tree into an idol? Are we sacrificing our children under it or to it? It is a place to have adulterous relationships? If you answer yes, then certainly don’t use a Christmas tree this year. But if you are using it to celebrate the coming of the Christ, the one who gave us eternal life (Evergreens represent eternal life) then by all means use a Christmas tree.
4. The Bible does not dictate how we should celebrate Christian events.
We actually find very little information in the Bible about how to celebrate Christian events. The most detailed celebration we have is the Lord’s Supper, and the detail we receive from the apostle Paul regarding this supper is actually quite small. The point is that we are now focused on the Spirit and not on Law. The New Testament has released us from legalism, from trying to make sure we keep every detail about something right. We are supposed to live our life fully in the Spirit free from the law. Paul writes, “It is for freedom that Christ set us free” (Gal. 5:1 NASB). We are free from silly rules and stipulations as to how every detail of our Christian observances should be conducted.
5. The Bible does not prohibit Christmas Trees.
Jeremiah 10 is often used to illustrate where the Bible prohibits the use of a Christmas tree. Let us consider the passage.
“1Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.
2Thus says the LORD,
‘Do not learn the way of the nations,
And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens
Although the nations are terrified by them;
3For the customs of the peoples are delusion;
Because it is wood cut from the forest,
The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.
4’They decorate it with silver and with gold;
They fasten it with nails and with hammers
So that it will not totter.
5’Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they,
And they cannot speak;
They must be carried,
Because they cannot walk!
Do not fear them,
For they can do no harm,
Nor can they do any good.’” (Jeremiah 10:1-5 NASB)
God gives Jeremiah a word about Idolatry. God begins by speaking about the nations. What do the nations do? They are terrified by the signs of the heavens. They look into the stars for guidance instead of to God. God says the customs of the people are a delusion. Remember the battle at Mt. Carmel. Elijah confronts the worshipers of Baal. They try to make the heavens send down fire by cutting themselves and crying out. These practices are a delusion.
Verse three is where it starts to sound like a Christmas Tree. It is cut from the forest. What is cut from a forest? It is a tree, of course. Then, read the next line. It is the work of a craftsman. This is step two. After it is cut down, it is shaped by the tools of a craftsman. At this point, the text is clearly not talking about a Christmas tree. It is talking about shaping an idol out a tree. Most idols were made of wood. Then, they paint it with gold and silver and put jewelry on it. But, they don’t speak. They don’t walk. They have to be carried. They are absolutely stupid. They can’t do good or evil. These are the pagan gods that plagued Israelite worship, not Christmas trees shaped in the form of men.
Secondly, Christmas trees did not exist yet. The first Christmas tree was not in existence until about 2000 years later. There is absolutely no reason to connect this text with the Christmas trees used in Christmas celebrations today.
6. The Christmas tree is not explicitly non-Christian in origin anyway.
There are four distinct legends for where the Christmas tree came from. Two of these are explicitly Christian in origin. For all we know, pagans did not give us the idea of a Christmas tree. We have given them the idea of one. Here are two of the Christian legends:
1. Martin Luther was walking at night and looked at the stars through a fir tree and was utterly amazed at the beauty of God’s creation when he saw the stars shining “inside” the fir tree. He went home, cut down a fir tree, tied candles to its branches, and celebrated the work of God’s creation with what would become the first Christmas tree.
2. St. Boniface came across a group of pagans worshiping an oak tree. He had the tree cut down. A few days later a fir tree sprang up from the roots of the oak tree. St. Boniface took it as a sign from God of the new life that comes in Christ. Just as the oak tree was dead, and new life sprang forth in it, so too the pagans, though dead in their sin, could have new life spring up within them if they turned to Christ. He started cutting down fir trees and using them to celebrate life in Christ, an image the pagans understood (the fur trees stayed green all winter).
Celebrating Christmas with a Christmas tree is quite acceptable for Christians today. On the other hand, there is also nothing wrong with not celebrating Christmas with a Christmas tree. The point is that whatever you do, celebrate Christmas for the real reason of the season instead of making the holiday about Santa Claus and getting presents. Be a giver this Christmas season, and celebrate the most incredible gift that has ever been given to man—Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas!
Labels: Christmas, Martin Luther
