There are two perspectives on Christmas: the “Dickensian” and the Scriptural. On the human level there is no harm in a season of general goodwill and generosity, family gathering, feasting, and the giving of gifts to loved ones, friends, and the needy. Any time of wholesome celebration and relaxation is to be welcomed and enjoyed. Freedom from care, shared happiness, and openness to others is a refreshing and therapeutic pause in the busy preoccupations of life. But Christmas expectations and observance can also be accompanied by domestic tensions, commercial exploitation, and the personal grief of sad recollections and the experience of isolation and “not fitting in” to any circle of relationships. Whilst some revel in the season others dread it, or dislike the indulgence in materialism and profiteering. Christmas is attended by much sentimentality, frustration, and dissatisfaction. Social workers can testify to the clashes in relationships and the casualties of debt. Whilst there can be an affable bonhomie abroad at Christmastime there can also be bad humour and harm.

The great risk is the concentration on the Dickensian Christmas and the neglect of the Real Christmas. An even greater danger is the submerging of the spiritual Christmas in the worldly and sentimental Christmas, where even the churches forget the intended nature of the season which is to be God-centred and Gospel-centred.

Christmas is not mandated by the Bible. Every Lord’s Day is a Christmas, an Easter, and a comprehensive festal occasion embracing the whole scope of the Saviour’s redemptive mission. Historically, the Church has made pastoral provision for the emphasis on various aspects of faith and doctrine in the invention of the Church Calendar which facilitates special emphasis on the great facts and acts of God which constitute our salvation. Some of the Christian events, whether it be wise or not, coincide with pagan festivals for the purpose of evangelism and the demonstration of the supremacy of Christ. Some of the Christian celebrations have been taken back and corrupted by the world. Individual Christian consciences will deal with these matters differently. Some believers regard the marking (and then the marketing) of the Church Calendar as perverse, others take it as an opportunity for proclamation when the ear of the world is at least half-cocked and the nominal roll out to church in droves. The regulative and normative principles each have their point. The vital thing for the Christian community is to ensure that everything done is always God-centred and man-convicting.

The narrative of our Lord’s nativity is rife with misinterpretation, fanciful embellishment, and sceptical reservation. Distortion of and distraction from the truth abounds. For some the mystery of the Incarnation is entirely wrapped up in myth, for others the charm of the story, be it fact or fiction, is remote from reality and their own experience. There is a fascination without faith and a failure to grasp the central historical message – that the Son of God became flesh (the God-man), was laid in a crib at his birth, lived among us for a time, and was nailed to a cross for our sins. Christmas is the time for reflection on crib, cross, and the necessity of our conversion to Christ: “Grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace may be daily renewed by your Holy Spirit” (Collect for Christmas Day). Christmas is to be pronouncedly salvation oriented: “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The Saviour is at the centre. Our sin is the cause of his coming. The Lord’s compassion is the dominant theme. Joy is our response. The purpose of the season cannot be overlaid by the “Dickensian” and secular elements that prevail, however congenial they may be.  The real Christmas spirit is engendered by the Holy Spirit and some of the carols we customarily sing are masterly in their theology and message if we truly attend to them and give priority to message above melody. Christmas is a time for the Church of God to become evangelistic in the most beguiling way. The truths to which we testify are stupendous and invigorating. Each event, if proclaimed with conviction and passion, seizes the mind and moves the heart. We witness to a wonder – the Creator mingles with his creatures for their recovery to him, and so that they might live he endures death in his manhood in order to remove their offences against him. Christmas is the most dramatic account of the Lord’s infinite love for estranged and rebellious mankind. No description can do it justice. We simply must drink in the words of Holy Scripture until they work their profound effect and produce faith and gratitude.

Scripture must be pre-eminent. It is the wellspring of the genuine hope, peace, and joy we deeply crave. It is the “stocking” in which we find everlasting treasures and as we delve into it we find that the stock of divine gifts is inexhaustible. What flows from the container is continuous. The Lord Jesus is the gift that surpasses all and supplies all that God has to give. The Bible is an inventory of all that God has in store for us, and what we have so far received is only a foretaste. The Lord’s season of generosity has no time limit.

Christmas is the season for celebrating mercy. The bounty we receive is the Lord Jesus himself, the forgiveness and life forever with him that he bestows. Martin Luther is adamant that the angelic message to the shepherds concerning joy should include the indefinite article i.e. “I bring you news of a great Joy”, the person of the Lord Jesus (Luke 210). He is Joy personified and present within us who believe.

There is yet another necessary amendment to the text of Luke’s gospel, now recognized by translators, that alters the unfortunate traditional misreading that misinforms us as to the core of the Christmas observance. The correction shifts the focus from man to God, and is consistent with the primary sentiment of the angels’ song, “Glory to God in the highest”. “The peace on earth” that ensues from the Saviour’s birth is wrought by God, principally through the One who was crucified. And the “good will” does not flow from men to men, but happens to be the favour of God that rests upon his chosen people i.e. “Peace to men on whom his favour rests”. The heavenly chorus extols saving grace, and that is the essence of Christmas, and the possession we are encouraged to gain through faith. But faith is not the currency we exchange for the divine favour it is the God-given means of appropriation. Salvation is free and faith constitutes our union with the Giver, the linking of hands between the donor and the recipient. Faith is the channel of transference. In his grip we are graced and he forges the connection. Leon Morris, one of our leading Anglican commentators on Scripture, writes, “There is an emphasis on God, not man. It is those whom God chooses, rather than those who choose God, of whom the angels speak” (Luke, Revised Edition, IVP, Leicester, England).  The old approach to the passage, and many approaches to Christmas, are an attempted robbery of the glory solely due to God, and theft of the gift he proffers to men through his Gospel. May glory and gift be recovered.

Luke the doctor relates to us the two great hymns of Advent, namely the Song of Mary (Magnificat) and Zechariah’s Song (Benedictus). These are prescriptions, for a wholesome celebration of the season, bequeathed to us by the saints who were closest to the arrival of the Messiah and the Messenger who would prepare his way into public ministry and the fulfilment of his saving passion. Mary and Zechariah were united in family and faith and their testimonies to the coming of Jesus and John are intensely personal, deeply passionate, and poignantly persuasive to those who receive them ponderingly. Pondering was the preoccupation of those closely connected with the twin miracles of Jesus’ and John’s entrance into the world. Both births were a marvel. A barren womb and a virgin’s womb brought forth two unique men who were to create a new era in the drama of salvation. John came as a Forerunner to the One who would be the Fulfiller of the promises of God and the hopes of his people. Mary and Zechariah have given us elaborative anthems of the Advent and its central characters and crucial roles. A divine purpose is being brought to a climax in an intensely human way. It pays to give close attention to the entwinement of the human and divine in the stories of amazed Jewish parents recounting the intervention of God in the affairs of men in such a powerful manner with very limited publicity on the world scene.

Elizabeth and Zechariah must have been overwhelmed at the consciousness of the calling of John. He was a dear son to them, God’s “gracious gift”, to adore in his infancy and childhood. Later he seemed to be in the care of a desert community, perhaps when his aged parents had died. But as much as John was cherished by his parents they knew that primarily he was God’s man in a special way. They knew the prophecies concerning him in the Scriptures and confirmed by an angel. They were the appointed guardians of the foreordained forerunner of the Redeemer of Israel. The Lord’s possession and prior claim upon John was clearly indicated in the choice of his name. Zechariah and Elizabeth must yield the parental privilege of naming their son to the sovereign prerogative of God. His name will not be selected by or in honour of any family member. He “is John” in clear recognition of the fact that his is God’s man.

The striking thing about Elizabeth and Zechariah is, that in spite of their strong desires and God’s favourable regard to them, the Lord is uppermost in their thoughts. They are not selfishly engrossed in the arrival of their son but submissive to God’s purpose in sending him to them. They know that he has a role to fulfil in the service of someone greater and in his song of praise Zechariah keeps the coming Christ child to the fore. He extols the Saviour before he introduces John, his very precious son, and expatiates upon his assignment. Jesus is the more precious. John is his beloved auxiliary - his harbinger and herald. He is born before the Messiah but inferior in rank. Zechariah’s deepest gratitude is for the coming deliverer – the redeemer of his people.

John in his mature years endorsed the approach of his father: “A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me” (John 1:30). “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). “I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him” (John 3:28). John knew his proper place. It was highly honourable but in service of Christ.

Zechariah’s song first touches upon the greatness of the Lord Jesus.  He is a mighty victor, a royal figure in the lineage of David. He is a successful deliverer and the merciful keeper of his covenant commitments. . Finally, he will be the establisher of a rule or reign of perfect peace, absolute security, unblemished holiness, and indisputable righteousness. Both the nature and environment of the people of God will be heavenly because they will be at home in God and he will make his home in them in a wondrous mutual indwelling.

Following the recognition of the superiority and supremacy of Christ Zechariah turns to his son whom he addresses fondly as, “My child”. There is a father’s tenderness in the Benedictus that expresses the tenderness of God. The birth of John has primed Zechariah in a profound mood of sensitivity to convey the loving kindness of God bound up in his covenant concern for Israel. Salvation is more than a transaction; it is an act of immense and compassionate love for the chosen people. As Zechariah cradles his son in his arms so the Lord cradles his folk in his care. The Song of Zechariah is affectionate and anticipatory.

John is truly God’s man. He is appointed prophet of the Most High. This office was foretold by former prophets and confirmed appreciatively by Jesus himself. “I tell you, among men, there is no one greater than John” Luke 7:28), meaning that John was the greatest of all the prophets because of his proximity to Jesus and because he is the preparer of the Messiah’s way (Luke 1:76).

John’s commission was an exalted one – a crucial and vital task: “To give God’s people knowledge of salvation” (v71). No knowledge is more essential.  John fulfilled the impartation of saving knowledge by 1) Preaching repentance.  He was to be occupied in, “Turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just”.

He must bid the people to return to God, forsake sin, and find reinstatement in his favour and his people. Judgment was his warning and forgiveness his offer. 2) John completed the main aspect of his ministry in pointing sinners to Jesus. “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This was his crowning accomplishment. John showed the way to forgiveness of sins – our greatest need. A need met and countered by magnificent grace, “The tender mercy of our God” (V78) – sweet compassion surpassing comprehension or measure.

John’s call and destiny were extraordinary. Mary brought Jesus into the world. John brought Jesus to his public.

In Mary and Zechariah we perceive the place and power of poetry in Holy Scripture – the lilt and lyricism of divinely inspired liturgy. It is so prevalent in God’s Book. Let none despise liturgy. In meditation and worship our thoughts ascend to imagery and song – the art of the sanctified heart. There is emotion in the Word that becomes feeling in our spirit. There is music in the gospel – not only information, accurate and necessary, but inspiration too. We move from words to wonder at the glorious things God has done, the blessings he has provided, and the good things in prospect. In Jesus the mercy of God shines upon us. Jesus is to us the expression of the Father’s warm smile of approval upon our souls. “The rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace” (vv78-79).

Interiority is the absolute priority in the religious life. External observances and verbal pronouncements have their necessary place and may even evidence interior authenticity but the practice of the Christian faith is chiefly a matter of the heart. God most surely judges our words and actions but his perception of the individual penetrates to the core of their being and weighs desire and motive in a way that human estimation certainly cannot. We may misjudge other persons but God’s reading of them is strictly accurate for an entirely fair appraisal of their character and behaviour. He knows the trend of our affections, our use or abuse of opportunities, the disadvantages and hindrances of our nature and circumstances, and he knows of our sins of deliberate choice and ignorant neglect. He searches our hearts with mercy and justice, “He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14), essentially worthless and windblown. Our natural weaknesses are disastrously exploited by the influence of sin. Our high calling in creation has been recklessly thrown away by our senseless revolt. The dust of our composition that was to be transformed into the sparkle of heavenly form has returned to the earth and mingles with the grime of common dirt. We have had a great fall. Yet God’s scrupulous examination of our soul’s history is blended with understanding. The outcome will be exactly what we deserve, or if we lean on him, precisely what Christ deserved on our behalf – infinite merit that counts as ours. Penitent faith will be the dividing line between the damned and the delivered.

God trains his scrutiny upon our essence. Human image and appearance is but the first layer in his investigation of our true worth. Skin tone, attainment, acquisition and status, are the mere tissue wrappings of the true self that may impress our fellows profoundly for good or ill, but these trifles are quickly peeled by the Lord as he probes our fundamental substance or lack of it. The keen insight of God parts its way through all our self-deception and illusions about ourselves to the heart of our heart and inmost interior where all the shocking truth is hidden and now disclosed. Like our first parents we stand naked before him without a leaf for concealment. Pretence and protest are precluded.

The Song of Mary, the Magnificat as it is known (Luke 1: 46-56), is an intimation of God’s unceasing examination of the heart. What is perplexing, deep, and dark to ourselves (Jeremiah 17:9-10) is an open scroll to God, a clear map of our journey into and through a lifelong course of evil. It is an indictment we cannot dispute and the ultimate destination is the bottomless pit of doom. The song of the Jewish maiden discloses the inmost thoughts of the righteous, the secret attitudes and agendas of the wicked, and traces the mind of the Lord in the matter of redemption.

The inmost thoughts of persons graced by the Spirit are humble with regard to self and trusting in reference to God. Mary is typical of the poor in spirit who turn to God in humility and fear. Pride has been quashed, sin has been mourned over, and amazement is expressed at the favour of God. Self-importance and a sense of desert has been eliminated. Preoccupation with self is banished and praise towards God is pre-eminent. The Lord is extolled in his nature and action – a covenant keeping God who swears mercy to Abraham and his descendents and maintains his promises continuously to generation after generation of his elect people. Mary perceives the culmination of that promise in the news she has received from Gabriel the archangel assigned to bearing momentous messages concerning the Messiah (Daniel 9:21). The Mighty One is magnanimous in his mercy, full of strength and success in his deeds, constant in his faithfulness, and condescending in his choice of the servants he selects in his purpose of salvation. Mary is not arrogant or presumptuous but stunned at her unique privilege to bear the Son of God into the world.  Divine honour does not breed hubris. It lowers the lowly in awe and gratitude. In this context Mary is full of grace, not to dispense it to others who supplicate her, but in her heart before God. Her humility, homage, and thankfulness are fruits of the Spirit who causes the fruit of her womb. The Son is her long awaited Saviour and she is not Co-Redemptrix, but only one of innumerable poor sinners redeemed and “lifted up” by him.

The inmost thoughts of the proud are detested by God and they are demoted by him. Whilst all of us are possessed and driven by foolish pride the rich and ruling classes are especially susceptible to conspicuous pride in view of their power and position, in many cases attained by dubious methods and lack of principle. Those who happen to be self-reliant and self-serving are warned not to be God-forgetting, nor boatful of wealth, attainment, or rank. If they are haughty and contemptuous of the poor they attract the condemnation of God and may easily be supplanted in the sovereignty of God. A man’s state is determined by God and he elevates whom he will. The same hand can scatter the thoughts, achievements, and prospects of the lofty-minded. They are still “dust” and may be repelled by God, who, above any other disposition, hates pride.

Inmost thoughts are discoverable to God and easily discerned by him. There are no successful cover-ups however clever we may think ourselves to be. Humble hearts are created by him and arrogant hearts are loathsome to him. To the former he comes quickly and eagerly; from the latter he speedily withdraws.

But Mary has also disclosed some facts about God that are revealed to her, and these are his inmost thoughts toward the rescue of his loved ones. These thoughts are the refuge and joy of all believers.  God is perpetually mindful of his humble servants (V48). They are sought and cared for over the generations. He remembers to be merciful (v54).  They are to the fore of his thinking and concern. His trustworthiness and goodness encourage them to revere him and they count on his help, counting his mighty acts of deliverance and provision in his people’s past. Mary muses on the truth that the Lord who has sent her such astounding information is the God who performs the impossible not only in terms of great feats but also in contradiction of our expectations. To a waiting, praying, believing people, concerned for the triumph of his kingdom and the welfare of souls, God can do all things, and possibly may. They cannot dictate but must trustingly wait. The God they adore is absolutely, unfathomably sovereign and powerful. We should place no restrictions upon his wise and holy will to work wonders that are consistent with his perfection and power, especially when it comes to the exercise of his compassion. God rules, “And upon that throne” comments Bishop Joseph Hall, “there sits no greater Majesty than Mercy”.

  Mary’s song addresses the scourge of human pride, condemns it, and says those filled with arrogance will be utterly emptied of self-importance and elitism. Mary sings in commendation of lowliness and utter reliance upon God. Believers are totally empty of desert or capacity to win approval from God – bereft of reputation and rectitude. For them, humility is the inevitable flipside of saving faith.

Words connote different things to different people. Some words have been “stolen” to suggest meanings of dubious morality or cheap significance and in the interest of maintaining standards these words are oftentimes avoided. And yet restraint in the use of certain terms and all the perfectly valid synonyms available to us can repress the high energy and exuberance of language that is meant to arouse uninhibited emotional expression that in no way tends to moral looseness or poor taste.

Scripture is very vivid in its description of moods, and over cautious interpretation may dull its intended sense to the reader and curtail the spirit of a passage in which we are meant to participate. As well as understand the word with our intellect we are meant to feel its message keenly within our heart, for it is true that evidence and emotion combined move us to acceptance of divine teaching.

The gospel is meant to excite as well as instruct.  The word of God is meant to elicit our affection and action as well as mental assent. It should thrill and enthral in its impartation of truth, and we should not blunt the desired impact of its authors who are endeavouring to gain a heartfelt response to realities that affect them overwhelmingly.

The Bible is alive and stirring and we must suck out the passion from its proclamation. This may mean that we ought not to be as “polite” as we deem a divinely inspired text to be. The dynamic thrust of the text needs to be fully conveyed. There is sometimes a shock value in Scripture that needs to be communicated with accentuation. Our cosy sensibilities need to be shaken. God is holy but not prissy (prudish).

“Rejoice” is a wonderful word that describes or exhorts great gladness but its familiarity in frequent religious use almost mutes its tone of effusive celebration. When we rejoice our inward delight is accompanied by cheerful facial expressions, the sounds of laughter, shouts of happiness, and gestures of triumphant pleasure. Christian rejoicing is the unfettered demonstration of festive feeling, an outbreak of gaiety at the great and good things God has done and still proposes to do. Those in misery and mourning receive surprising mercy that is lavish and massive, and the extravagant generosity of the Lord causes acclaim from the heart, praise from the lips, and the energetic exercise of the limbs. The blessings of the New Covenant, when they are conferred, cause the recipients to leap, jump, dance, and raise hands to heaven. The gospel is a source of mirth and merriment.

The adjective “merry” captures so well the mood in which the Good News of Jesus Christ is received, and “innocent merriment” (W.S. Gilbert) is just what the believer experiences at the realization of all that salvation implies.

In this, the NEB excels in its translation of Romans 15:10: “Gentiles, make merry together with his own people”. Making merry is an essential part of biblical tradition. The prodigal son returned home to a great feast and heaven is a perpetual banquet. “Merry” is a cheerful, almost jovial, word to pronounce and it conveys exactly the sentiment associated with understanding of the grace of God.

The festival of the Incarnation is meant for the celebration of all nations at the coming of Israel’s Messiah. The promises made to God’s ancient people extend to the whole earth and all its inhabitants. Israel was selected as servant of the message of universal rescue and favour through Christ the foretold Redeemer of men. The enjoyment of God’s goodness was to make Israel’s commendation of the Saviour credible and convincing. Their taste of the Lord was to whet the appetite of the strangers to the covenant so that they might yearn for and find inclusion within the elect people of the Lord. The little nation was to swell with members of every nation. God’s ideal for the Jews failed through repeated and long term disobedience. Their own lack of spiritual vision prevented the fulfilment of their mission to the world. Pentecost restored the impetus to publish the message of grace to the entirety of humanity, and as the gospel spreads, converts make merry the world over as they transfer from darkness to light, fear to hope, ignorance to knowledge, peril to protection. The change is so radical and the joy is so real.

We Gentiles of the Christian tradition, that has been established in our cultures for so long, perhaps fail to fully appreciate the plight of the Gentile world past and present. The gradual erosion of the influence of faith in our society, and the corrosion of our inherited cultural norms and values, will perhaps educate us in the preciousness of our heritage and the cruciality and necessity of the gospel in the lives of human beings both for conversion and civilization. Ethnically we are not the “direct heirs” of the promises. Israel was to be the instrument of our calling. The faithful remnant, the apostles, and their colleagues, ensured that the message “got out” to reach the other races, but we are grafted into the true Israel through new birth and belief of the promises made to the Patriarchs. We are humbled to be drawn to God through the “over-plus” of saving grace. Our distant heathen ancestors of long ago were not aware of the ancient Scriptures and its prophecies. They lived in superstition, idolatry, savagery, and dread.  The over-spill of the word of God to “outsiders” is the source of our good fortune before God. The faithful from “the circumcised” took the first and many extra steps in reaching out to us. For all of Israel’s sinfulness, blindness, and defection we must be grateful that Jews shared their Messiah with us and opened up the nature of his worldwide purposes of mercy to us. In spite of Israel’s unbelief and ineffectiveness on a wide scale we Gentiles are beneficiaries of Jewish loyalty to Christ and their concern and compassion towards us.

Now Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Peter, John, Paul – “The glorious company of apostles, the noble fellowship of prophets, the white robed army of martyrs” are our forbears, family, and dear friends. Now all racial distinction is removed, except for chronological order in the knowledge of God (Romans 1:16). We Gentiles, incorporated into the fellowship of Christ by gracious permission, are under sovereign and sweet command to, “Praise the Lord” (v11a). We partner the believers from Israel in exalting and glorifying God.  “Let all peoples praise him” (v11b). The promise in Christ is universal and so, too, should be the praise.

God’s dealing with Jew and Gentile are marvellous. His grace and judgment have been exercised upon both. Now our longing is that is that folk of each category will be drawn in enormous numbers to the Saviour of the world. In him we shall find safety and unity and shared joy. For the sake of the Fathers we are debtors to the Jew. Paul’s devotion to their spiritual wellbeing was huge (Romans 9:1-3, 10:1). If we honour Paul we honour and share his desire for his people. As Gentiles, judged favourably through Christ (Daniel 7:22), we embrace all humankind in our concern and outreach with the plea of Spurgeon, “Lord, save all your elect, and elect some more”.

If our joy at Christmas is found in Christ then “Merry Christmas” is a proper seasonal greeting indeed.