Well friends, today is Christmas Eve and Christmas is one of my favorite holidays so today we’re going to talk Christmas and Christmas things. I know, I know, the name of this broadcast is Truth in Journalism and there’s been an awful lot of journalism-type stuff going on. What with Demon’s being toppled Jerubbaal-style in Iowa to Donnie from Queens being struck from the Colorado ballot. There has been an awful lot of newsworthy stuff, as well as you know, the whole world being on fire.
And it’s tempting, in times like these, to skip Christmas and just say, “No, there’s too much going on that Christians need to be aware of.” We’ll get to the world being on fire and the Colorado Court and our latter-day Gideon—believe that. But not today.
And the reason we’re not going to get to it today is because Jesus’s birth is still the most relevant good news in history—alongside His perfect life, atoning death, and resurrection, ascension, session, and planned return, et cetera. And Easter and Ascension Day and all the other Christian holidays are great and worthy. But they aren’t Christmas and today we’re talking about Christmas.
And perhaps there is an opportunity today to be particularly grateful to God for His goodness, not in spite of, but in light of the psychopathy of society. We can be especially grateful to God that Christ Himself is far from the madding crowd—we can have peace in this strife-sticken world because we have Christ. And having Christ doesn’t change the world, but it does change us who are in the world.
And that’s part of the beauty and tragedy of Christmas. And I use the word tragedy advisedly.
Because God came into the world; God took on flesh—and nothing changed.
And I think that that’s a notion that Christians don’t always wrestle with to its fullest extent. We’re aware of it, in the sense that people are aware that they breathe air, but you don’t really think about it unless someone points it out to you—or if you’re struggling to catch your breath. We often overlook the fact that while Christmas changed everything in some ways, it changed nothing in others. Which sounds like a logical contradiction. Christmas changes everything and nothing. No logician or dialectician worth his salt could say such an obvious incoherency. And yet I said it and I think I’m a logician at least worth my salt, and perhaps a bit more.
And I make this claim not because I’m so wise—I’m not—but because I believe the Bible and human history teach us that Christmas changed everything and nothing.
So, what I’d like us to do today is to examine these claims—the claims that Christmas changed everything and nothing, and consider them, and then we’ll conclude with our conclusions.
First, Christmas changed everything. Now, of course, this is the easy part of the broadcast. Christmas changed everything because Jesus is the long-expected Messiah who came and now that He has taken on flesh, God has been made man, and Immanuel has bridged the chasm between deity and humanity. Now that God is made man, everything has been set in motion.
And when I say everything has been set in motion, I’m using a rather physical, but I think helpful analogy. Think of a set of dominoes, or if you have a great imagination, think of a Rube Goldberg machine. Imagine some kind of mechanism that once it starts, even with the smallest act to start, the whole thing will go of itself and there’s no stopping it.
From the moment Mary conceived a series of unstoppable events began and those events would transform all of humanity—the series of events put in motion by Christmas includes the atonement and forgiveness of sin, the giving of eternal life, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the existence of the Church, and someday the revelation of the Man of Sin, the total defeat of Satan and all those who rebel against God, the doing of justice on a cosmic scale, and eternal peace, love, joy, and fellowship between God and His children.
Those are the things that Christmas brings and makes possible. Because Christmas every good promise in the Bible can be fulfilled. Because Christmas every terrifying threat will be made good against those who hate God. Because Christmas: everything changed and changes.
We see this most obviously when the angels proclaimed Christ’s birth to the shepherds of Bethlehem.
Luke 2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
The angels come and they proclaim that God is glorious because of what He has done—angels come and sing, it’s good news of great joy for all the people. This is wonderful. Christ being born is great good news. Christ coming has changed everything.
And yet, and yet, and yet nothing has changed. Consider what happened after the Magi visited.
Matthew 2:13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
Christmas changed everything and yet it changed nothing. And the reason that it changed nothing is obvious. The world continues to be full of sin and evil. Evil people continue to do evil things.
Yes, Jesus was born and everything changes because of that, but Herod hears of it and it’s the same old story, the same old sin—the mighty in this world abuse the powerless and the strong oppress the weak and the slaughter of the innocents is carried out. Yes, everything changed, and yet nothing changed.
Longfellow wrote about this paradox at the height of the Civil War, he wrote:
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."
Yes, the world is full of evil, the world is full of wickedness and unrighteousness and nastiness. The cruel and vicious do whatever they want.
Evildoers continue on as though Christ had never come.
And yet He has come. He came and did everything He was supposed to do. He fulfilled the prophecies so that on the cross He cried out “It is Finished!” and everything has changed. Brothers and sisters, friends, the worlds on fire; America is rushing headlong towards Civil War; our culture and society are decadent and degenerate; everything is falling apart, the center cannot hold; the powerful oppress the powerless; the weak exploit the strong; evil triumphs over good—the world continues on as it has from the beginning. Nothing has changed.
But everything HAS changed. Everything has changed because things have been set in motion that cannot be undone. Christ has come the first time, and He will come a second time. God has appointed a day and and hour to judge humanity and Christ has been appointed as that judge. Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and His kingdom shall have no end.
But more than that Christ has ascended and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him.
But more than that He has sent the Comforter to be with us to guide us into all truth and to produce fruit in and by and for and unto and through us.
And Christ is present in the world through His body the Church.
All these things are changes that changed because of Christmas and they change everything.
Christmas has transformed the whole world. Christmas has transformed more than the whole world it has translated the whole universe and beyond—Heaven and Hell are different because of Christmas, nothing can be the same now that God has become man! Because of Christmas God will make all things new. Jesus transforms everything and brings life into everything.
Yes, it’s true that many, if not most, continue on doing evil. But they’re doing evil in a world that has been redeemed. The wicked continue to be depraved, but their depravity is carried out in bodies that Christ died for. People continue to sin, but they sin with sin that’s been paid for.
And some of you out there might be very hard-nosed pragmatists and you might say, “Listen Luke, you handsome scholar, you, that’s all very well that the ungodly are ungodly in a world that God will redeem, but they are still acting ungodly.”
Sure.
What’s your point? If you want to say that Christmas changed nothing because evildoers continue to do evil, you’re entirely justified—but I think you’re missing the point. Because the point of Christmas was not that every soul would be saved, but that every soul would live in a saved world where their salvation was possible. They were no longer without God and without hope in the world. There is hope now.
But yes, if you want, you can say that nothing has changed and you’re right—but you’re no more right than the man who says that everything has changed. Because the one who says everything has changed is right that Christmas has brought all those good and great things I mentioned above. Christmas has made God man so that man might someday be made like God. Some day the great promise of the Bible that God would be our God and that we would be His people and that some day we will be one with the Father as the Son is one with the Father. Some day this promise of oneness and intimacy with God will be fulfilled—but we grew closer to that “some day” through Christmas.
In closing I wish to read some beautiful words, some of the most underrated poetry in all of Christian hymnody:
It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold;
"Peace on the earth, good will to men
From heaven's all-gracious King" –
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.
Still through the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o'er its Babel-sounds
The blessed angels sing.
But with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring; –
Oh hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!
And ye, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing; –
Oh, rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing!
For lo! the days are hastening on
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When Peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.