My Love-Hate Relationship with Christmas
I admit, my mind tends to change a lot about Christmas. I decided to read about Charles H. Spurgeon's love-hate relationship with Christmas as a self-reflection. There's something that interested me to think about how I too have a love-hate relationship with it.
I can't help but think why I have the tendency to hate Christmas
It's the time of the year when people are the most inconsiderate. You have people asking for extra leniency or mendicancy during Christmas. It's the time of the year when traffic is at the worst especially inconsiderate drivers are around. It's also the time of the year when parents break the rules and lie about Santa Claus. The wicked make a show out of Christmas to show their "good" works while they have hypocrisy for almost every day of the year - maybe except Lent if they were Roman Catholic. That's just among a few reasons why I really tend to hate the holiday.
It's the time of the year when people are the most inconsiderate. You have people asking for extra leniency or mendicancy during Christmas. It's the time of the year when traffic is at the worst especially inconsiderate drivers are around. It's also the time of the year when parents break the rules and lie about Santa Claus. The wicked make a show out of Christmas to show their "good" works while they have hypocrisy for almost every day of the year - maybe except Lent if they were Roman Catholic. That's just among a few reasons why I really tend to hate the holiday.
I started reading a couple of anti-Roman Catholic sources and found out how December 25 couldn't be the birth of the Savior. There's really a lot to think about how December 25 in the Gregorian calendar has been associated with the birthday of several pagan deities. Jesus Christ could have not been born in December 25 given the facts that shepherds don't camp out during that time of year. It would be too cold. Also, what shocked me to learn was that Christmas used to be celebrated on January 6 and it took one papal decree of Pope Julius I.
One reason why I started hating Christmas was because I misread Jeremiah 10:3-5. The whole chapter's context is not about Christmas trees but graven images of his day. Since when did the Jews even have something similar to Christmas trees? If you read the whole context you'll notice that the whole context is on idols. The description is all on graven images and not decorated trees. What's so sad is that some Christians today still insist it's about Christmas trees.
One reason why I started hating Christmas was because I misread Jeremiah 10:3-5. The whole chapter's context is not about Christmas trees but graven images of his day. Since when did the Jews even have something similar to Christmas trees? If you read the whole context you'll notice that the whole context is on idols. The description is all on graven images and not decorated trees. What's so sad is that some Christians today still insist it's about Christmas trees.
Not to mention, I'm still reminded of how I was lied to about Santa Claus. I still remember how excited I was thinking Santa Claus was coming when those gifts weren't from him. I still can't help but get so mad thinking about seeing how parents tend to lie to their children about Santa Claus. It really frustrates me to no end. I tend to still get so frustrated until now because of that "little white lie" known as Santa Claus as a reason why I have the tendency to hate Christmas.
Why I still have the tendency to love Christmas
C.H. Spurgeon would later no longer celebrate Christmas yet he saw it as an opportunity for evangelism. He would later have these words in his Christmas sermon:
WE HAVE NO superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas: first, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English; and, secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Saviour; and, consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Saviour’s birth, although there is no possibility of discovering when it occurred. Fabricius gives a catalogue of 136 different learned opinions upon the matter; and various divines invent weighty arguments for advocating a date in every month in the year. It was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the church celebrated the nativity of our Lord; and it was not till very long after the Western church had set the example, that the Eastern adopted it. Because the day is not known, therefore superstition has fixed it; while, since the day of the death of our Saviour might be determined with much certainty, therefore superstition shifts the date of its observance every year. Where is the method in the madness of the superstitious? Probably the fact is that the holy days were arranged to fit in with heathen festivals. We venture to assert, that if there be any day in the year, of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which the Saviour was born, it is the twenty-fifth of December. Nevertheless since, the current of men’s thoughts is led this way just now, and I see no evil in the current itself, I shall launch the bark of our discourse upon that stream, and make use of the fact, which I shall neither justify nor condemn, by endeavoring to lead your thoughts in the same direction. Since it is lawful, and even laudable, to meditate upon the incarnation of the Lord upon any day in the year, it cannot be in the power of other men’s superstitions to render such a meditation improper for to-day. Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son.
There is one thing about Christmas that I love. It's a time to get together and the opportunity to witness and counter a pagan holiday. It's the opportunity to further meditate on the incarnation of Christ even if He wasn't born on December 25. This would also be the opportunity to preach.
Steven Lawson of Ligonier Ministries also wrote this of C.H. Spurgeon:
Spurgeon presented the Gospel with severe warnings to lost sinners. If tender appeals, sound reasonings, compelling persuasions, and authoritative commands do not reach the unbeliever’s heart, he believed, then stronger words are required. Spurgeon openly told those who persisted in unbelief of their impending danger of eternal condemnation. If they did not repent, he warned, they would certainly perish forever. Spurgeon often stressed the tenuous nature of life. For instance, he once asserted:
Are you sure that heart of yours is quite sound? Is the blood circulating with all accuracy? Are you quite sure of that? And if it be so, how long shall it be? O, perhaps there are some of you here that shall never see Christmas-day; it may be the mandate has gone forth already, ‘Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.
The Christmas season itself is indeed the opportunity to win people out. Meet Santa Claus wannabes with his "little helpers"? Facing annoying carolers? It's the time to hand out a Gospel tract to these people and share the message they badly need to hear. The Santa Claus wannabe and his "little helpers" and the carolers are part of the mission field. People who take opportunity to do wickedly during Christmas are the mission field. It's time to counter their wickedness with kindness and with the Gospel of Christ.
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