Christmas can be an overwhelming time. Cultural and familial pressures all around us tend to push and pull us in all directions at once. Messages are screamed at us about what to buy, where to go, and who to be with. The cultural pressure presents unrealistic expectations to please everyone and give a picture-perfect image during this season. It can lead people to feel frazzled and frantic. This feeling of being overwhelmed by these things is entirely unnecessary. There is no reason for Christians to allow our culture to push and pull us as it does, but that is not the point I want to make.
I believe that Christmas is intended by God to be overwhelming. He wants us to stand still in awe of the season. Not because we tend to give in to every whim of our culture, but because of the incredible work of our God. As Christians, we know that God in all of His glory was pleased to come to this earth as a man. We also know that He did this for us.
Easily Forgotten
The sad reality is that we all too often become numb to this truth. It isn’t that we don’t know it or believe it, but it is just that we are apathetic to it. The reality of the gospel should be overwhelming. It should leave us in awe and wonder. Being reminded of the fact that our God left the perfection and majesty of heaven to come to this fallen earth for us fallen creatures is astonishing.
Equally astonishing is that those of us who know it to be fact can let life pass us by as though it doesn’t matter. This time of year, we are far too easily overwhelmed by the necessity of the perfectly made Christmas cookie, all the while unmoved and unaffected by the gospel. Christmas is a reminder that Christ did come. If He hadn’t, we would be left with no savior and no hope for salvation. There would be no real peace and no real joy. Christ accomplished much in His coming to this world. Here are just a few such accomplishments found in the account of His birth found in the Gospel of Luke.
Peace – “To guide our feet into the way of peace” Luke 1:79
Colossians 1:20 tells us that Jesus brings us peace with God through the blood of His cross. Apart from Jesus, it is impossible for us to have peace with God. Our sins cause us to be at enmity with God. This leaves us in a constant state of turmoil between Him and us that we could never repair on our own. Jesus left heaven to mend that turmoil.
Joy – “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy” Luke 2:10
At times it seems like this world gives us very little reason to be joyful. God through Christ gives us every reason. John 15 tells us that we can be friends with Christ. Good friends make you happy. The best of friends brings real joy. Jesus says that He brings us real and abundant life. He also gives us a purpose to live for. Our Lord has come and because of that, we can have joy.
Light – “To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,” Luke 1:79
If Jesus is the light of the world as He claimed to be, that means that apart from him the entire world is living in darkness. Your options are either Christ or darkness, there is no third alternative. The light of Christ illuminates and exposes the darkness of sin, and also shines on the goodness of God. We take a light into a room to dispel the darkness. Likewise, the light of Jesus Christ had to come into this darkness of our sin to illuminate and deal with that darkness.
Salvation – “To give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins” Luke 1:77-78
The natural state of mankind is broken, fallen, dying, and headed for destruction. The only possible way to alter that trajectory is Jesus. On the first Christmas, “unto us a savior was born” which is good news for us because we were in desperate need of one. Jesus did not come for the healthy. He didn’t come to give us some moral lessons, or simply to live an example of the “good life”. He came to save souls.
Being overwhelmed is typically not a good thing. But the facts of Christ should leave us overwhelmed and in awe. The creator of the universe came to you and me. God dwelt among us, and He did it because of a love for us. Just this once, let yourself be overwhelmed.