These were Jesus’ last words before he died (Luke 23:46). But he wasn’t the first to say them. He was quoting from Psalm 31:5, written by King David a thousand years earlier. 

So what stirred David to say these words? He explains in verses 9-10. It’s because “I’m in deep, deep trouble. I’ve cried my eyes out; I feel hollow inside. My life leaks away, groan by groan…my troubles have worn me out, turned my bones to powder” (The Message). This was some problem David had. 

So what was it? “To my enemies I’m a monster,” he wrote in verses 11-13. “I’m ridiculed by the neighbours. My friends are horrified, they cross the street to avoid me. They want to blot me from memory, forget me like a corpse in a grave, discard me like a broken dish in the trash. The street-talk gossip has me (classed as) ’criminally insane.’” 

This was the slayer of Goliath reduced to a sobbing wreck by friends and neighbours who were spreading the word that he was insane. And it hurt David to the depths of his being. Like the deep hurt that millions of people experienced during the pandemic, when they too were shamed, shunned and ridiculed by family and friends for not going along with the narrative. 

But Jesus’ family thought he was “out of his mind” too (Mark 3:21). He was even accused of being demonic (Matthew 12:24). Was David in this Psalm, then, expressing what Jesus would be feeling? If so, we get a real insight into the depths of emotion that Jesus felt. We also see how freely he could express his emotions to his Father, and in such human terms too.  

And David didn’t hold back either. In verse 2 he cries out to God, “Get down on my level and listen, and please – no procrastination.” And in verse 17, “Desperate, I throw myself on you. Don’t embarrass me by not showing up.” Such human language with God. But look what happened. In verse 22, David could say, “you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.” And Jesus in his desperation was also “heard” (Hebrews 5:7). It was fine speaking to God that way, then. 

And that made me think about the new year, which is shaping up to be a real doozy. We’ve already witnessed the damage that friends and family can do to each other, so we too are very much in the same world that David and Jesus were in. 

And when desperation set in they both reacted the same way too. To God they both said, “To you I commit my spirit.” In other words, “I belong to you. It’s to you, then, I entrust my sanity. So please don’t embarrass me by not showing up.”    

Was the primary purpose of Jesus’ birth to save the world? 

No, not according to an angel in Matthew 1:21, who told Joseph that Mary would “give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Not save the world; save his people. His people being? Acts 13:23, “From David’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Saviour Jesus, as he promised.”

Jesus himself said in Matthew 15:24 that “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” And to his disciples he said, “Do not go among the Gentiles…Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel,” Matthew 10:5-6. 

And one Christmas carol caught that, in its cry O come, O come, Emmanuel to “ransom captive Israel.” The focus isn’t on Jesus coming as Saviour for the whole world, it’s a cry, in the words of the carol, for “the Rod of Jesse” to “free thine own from Satan’s tyranny.” Not free the whole world through the Saviour Jesus, but free Israel through the “Rod of Jesse,” Jesse being King David’s father, and the ancestral lineage that would lead to the birth of Jesus.

But why would the Rod of Jesse freeing Israel be so important? Because it harks back to the prophecy in Isaiah 11:1 that one day a shoot, or stem, would grow from the stump of Israel, and branch out into a tree bearing fruit again. 

It was an amazing prophecy because Israel was down to a mere remnant after the Assyrian hordes had dragged them off as captives into exile. And that’s where they’d remained, in the words of the carol, as “captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here.”

Until, that is, “the Son of God appear” (verse 1 in the carol) to “reach  out his hand a second time to claim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria” (verse 11 in Isaiah 11).  

It’s a marvellous promise that Israel will be rescued from their exile in a second Exodus. And the carol picks up on that as the reason for Emmanuel coming. Emmanuel, the rod of Jesse, comes first and foremost to free his OWN people, Israel. He’s coming “to thee, O Israel,” to save them, in the words of the carol, “from depths of hell,” and to give them “victory o’er the grave.”

It is the rescue of Israel a “second time” from slavery, therefore, that is the primary focus of Jesus being born. And it’s that story God wants us Gentiles to grasp, because it tells us what we need to know most about him – that he’s utterly faithful to his promises, and he’s forever merciful and kind. 

In the fourth century the introduction of Christmas was meant to make Jesus’ birth relevant to people in that world. The competition was hot, however, because the seven day festival of Saturnalia in late December had been around for a long time, and its festivities were extremely popular. But by absorbing many of its traditions and extending Christmas festivities to twelve days, the Roman church managed to win a lot of people over to Jesus’ birth instead.

It was an odd situation, though, using Saturnalia customs to get the Christmas message across, but that’s always been the challenge for Christians: How do we make Jesus’ birth relevant in the world we’re in?     

How, for instance, is Jesus’ birth meaningful and relevant to people living in a war zone, where missiles are exploding, there’s no power, no water, no facilities for washing, no proper medical help, and life is hell? And how does Jesus’ birth reverberate in the minds of people who’ve been forced by inflation to choose between eat or heat? Or to people fearful of losing their home because they can’t afford the mortgage payments, or to those who fear the repercussions of Covid on their kids and ageing parents. 

And how does Jesus’ birth offer any comfort to those living in regimes that believe medically assisted suicide is a viable substitute for proper care? Or that closing down farms is going to help feed people. Or that climate change necessitates urgent measures that only cause more suffering, not less. Where’s the relevance in Jesus’ birth in all those situations? 

But there is a point of relevance, in that Jesus was born into a world just like ours. Psychopathic leaders, brutal diseases and demonic forces were wrecking the lives of adults and children in his day too. But Jesus arriving as a human on this planet was an eye-opener. He sent demonic forces packing. He brought peace and joy to people with chronic ailments. And those who saw the power he had and turned to him in their desperation, experienced his love and power personally.  

He opened eyes to his relevance all right. And he backed it up with a challenge too, when he said, “Come to me and you will find rest for your souls.” It was brilliant. And so simple. To prove his relevance, all anyone had to do was look to him and trust him, and he would take care of their deepest needs. 

Which makes Jesus’ birth relevant in any age, because the same challenge applies. It could add some much needed relevance to Christmas in our world too. 

The Nativity scene I grew up with was like a typical children’s stage presentation at Christmas time, with Joseph and Mary, the baby in the manger, several shepherds, three wise men, an innkeeper, a donkey, an ox, several sheep, and maybe a few camels and an elephant thrown in. And above the stable would be a star of Bethlehem and maybe an angel or two. Whatever the set up it was pretty packed, but it gave as many children as possible a part to play. 

And it was cute. Halos slipped, kids forgot their parts or wandered round rather aimlessly, and there was always the child who got precariously close to the edge of the stage. And in one case a sheep actually fell off. 

We have St. Francis of Assisi to thank for all these Nativity scenes being played out on stage, because he was the first to stage one. Inspired by a visit to the Holy Land and a trip to Jesus’ traditional birthplace in a Bethlehem cave, he got permission from the residing Pope to set up a Nativity scene on Christmas Eve in a cave near the Italian hilltop town of Greccio in 1223. He made a manger, and brought in hay, a live ox and a donkey. But no Joseph, Mary, baby, shepherds or wise men, though.

According to Francis’ biographer, however, a devout soldier present that evening “affirmed that he beheld an infant marvellously beautiful sleeping in the manger, whom the blessed Father Francis embraced with both his arms, as if he would awake him from sleep.” And a second legend has it that the hay Francis brought in that night not only cured the diseases of any animals that ate it, it also eased the pain in expectant mothers when they placed the hay on themselves.

Needless to say, with legends like that, the Nativity scene took on a life of its own, and over the centuries evolved into the fantasy it is today. And it is fantasy, because in the original story the wise men weren’t there, they arrived some time later, and there’s no mention in Scripture of Jesus being born in a cave or a detached stable, or that a donkey, an ox and sheep were present either. Or an angel.  

Jesus was more likely born in the bottom floor of a home. When Luke talks of “the inn” in Luke 2:7, it’s referring to a guest room in a home, not a hotel. Jewish families had a guest room on the upper floor for travellers, but the guest rooms in town that night were full. There was room on the bottom floor of a home, however, where the animals, if there were any, would be.   

It was a bit of a shock, then, to discover that the Nativity scene I’d grown up with was a later innovation, and it wasn’t an accurate portrayal either.  

The grand old lady of Christmas has had a good run. Ever since she made her grand entrance on December 25th in the year 336, she’s played to rapturous audiences worldwide. And people haven’t stopped raving over her for nearly 1700 years, an amazing record. And she didn’t change the show much along the way either. 

But after all this time, is she beginning to show signs of her age? And are some of her outfits looking a bit dated, like the good old crowd favourites she hauls out every year to get people in the festive spirit again? Is she ageing in a changing world, where cherished traditions nowadays are being viewed as leftovers from a dark and repugnant past?  

Even that lovely name of hers, “Christmas,” is losing its shine. It’s now more politically correct to have a “holiday tree.” And nativity scenes, the very heart and soul of Christmas, are being banned from city property. And the health conscious are having conniptions over Christmas decorations containing harmful substances. It’s a different world.

So how does Christmas survive in such a world? Does it need a makeover, like dated kitchen cupboards? Or does it need a total rethink, this time based purely on Scripture? In Scripture, for instance, the date of Jesus’ birth, and setting aside a day to celebrate his birth, are not mentioned or recommended. But what Scripture does tell us is what Jesus received as gifts, and very specifically too, no guesswork involved. So, what if we focused on the gifts instead? 

He received gold, frankincense and myrrh, an amazingly astute collection of gifts from Persian wise men, because each gift pictured a key role Jesus would play. Myrrh was used for embalming, picturing Jesus’ death to save us; frankincense was used in the temple by the priests, picturing Jesus’ priesthood to nurture us; and gold was the gift for kings, picturing Jesus’ triumphant power over evil for us.  

And that last bit is very much the focus of his birth, as John brings out in 1 John 5:18, that “the one born of God” – Jesus – “keeps us safe, and the evil one does not touch us.” 

That’s not just a “touch up” on Christmas to give it a makeover; it’s getting right at the reality of the world we live in, where evil is real, and if it wasn’t for Jesus being born as our Saviour, High Priest and King, we would have no defence against it.  

For a few hours on Christmas Day it’s forget the world, take it easy, and “eat, drink and be merry.” But is there any biblical support for doing so, and does the phrase even exist in the Bible?    

Yes, it does, at the end of Luke 12:19, in a story Jesus tells of a rich man who’s jolly pleased with himself because he has “plenty of good things laid up for many years.” He’s done well in business, padded his bank account very nicely to the point he can spend money without having to think about it. He can truly tell himself, “Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”  

And can he be blamed for thinking that, when “the great words of the Teacher” in Ecclesiastes includes the statement in chapter 8:15, “So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better under the sun than to eat, drink and be glad.” There’s that phrase again, and again it’s in Scripture, and this time it’s being encouraged too.  

The great Greek philosopher, Epicurus (Epi-cue-rus), also encouraged it. He believed from his own observation that happiness for us humans is tied in with savouring life and enjoying pleasurable activities, no matter how small. And rather than fretting about the future and long term goals, just enjoy life as it comes.  

In modern terms it’s called hedonism, which gets its share of bad press nowadays, because it pictures rich globalists jetting round the world eating and drinking and being merry, having “laid up for themselves” oodles of money at others’ expense, and they get away with their selfishness and greed – because they can. Which is exactly the kind of chap Jesus was talking about back in Luke 12, to press the point home that “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions,” verse 15.  

So there’s a bad side to “Let’s eat, drink, and be merry,” when it’s “So long as I’m enjoying myself and getting the things I want, who cares about the cost to others?” But there’s a good side too, when taking into account Jesus’ statement in John 10:10, that he came so we “may have life and live it to the full.” Isn’t that a potent nod to pleasure and happiness being a good thing? 

Yes, but as Shakespeare wrote in Othello, Act 2, Scene 3: “Good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used.” So, yes, enjoy the beautiful and “familiar” pleasures that life has to offer, and with total scriptural backing too, because in Ecclesiastes 2:24, “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too is from the hand of God.” 

But “if it’s to be well used” there’s verse 25 too, “for without God who can eat or find enjoyment?” That’s what makes “eating, drinking and being merry” truly biblical, knowing God is in on our enjoyment too.  

There’s no record of Jesus or his parents making a big deal out of his birthday each year. There’s no record in the New Testament of setting aside his birthday as an important date on the calendar either. And for the first two centuries no one claimed to know the year or the date of his birth. It wasn’t important. 

Interest in his birth picked up in the third century, but it wasn’t until nearly half way through the fourth century that interest in his birth had grown to the point that a Roman Pope fixed a day for it. It wasn’t a brilliant choice on his part, because it coincided with the Roman pagan holiday celebrating the birthday of the unconquered sun, but it stuck.

To support December 25th as the day of Jesus’ birth, the Roman church claimed Jesus was conceived on the spring equinox in late March so, based on that supposition, Jesus would be born nine months later on the winter solstice in late December. And right or not, that stuck too. 

The festivities then chosen to celebrate Jesus’ birthday compared remarkably well with the rituals observed by various pagan groups. “Christmas” entered the English language later on as Christes Maesse, and many traditions from other nations were added through the years – one of the most popular being the Dutch name for St. Nicholas – Sinterklaas, the giver of gifts to children. 

Fixing a date for Jesus’ birthday and attaching traditions to it can be explained, therefore, but it surely begs the question still, that if Jesus didn’t celebrate his birthday, why do we? And what if the one public celebration of Jesus as a baby the Bible does mention, wasn’t actually on his birthday? 

It came forty days later, when Jesus’ parents took him to the temple in Jerusalem in Luke 2:22 to complete the purification ceremony commanded in the Law of Moses for every firstborn baby boy (verse 23). Waiting for them was a man by the name of Simeon, who on seeing Jesus “took him in his arms” and right there in a shout of praise to God, told the world in verses 29-32 what this baby boy had been born for. And then to Jesus’ stunned parents he added that because of their baby boy “the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed,” verse 35.  

Now that’s a message worth noting, because what makes our world tick is people with good hearts, and what makes our world suffer is people with cold hearts. And Jesus came to reveal that, because it gives us the key to why good and bad things happen. It’s the thoughts in our hearts.  

What we and the planet desperately need, then, is people with good thoughts in their hearts. And, fortunately, Jesus is creating such people, by birthing his lovely heart in them. Now there’s a birthday he’d celebrate.  

When the Roman church officially launched the first Christmas in the fourth century it must’ve been a great relief and a time of celebration, thanks to Constantine freeing up Christians from years of persecution. But through the following centuries Christmas was met with mixed reviews. 

It was banned several times, by Cromwell in England and by the Plymouth Pilgrims in America in the 1600’s, and attempts are being made today to remove Christmas in both name and ritual. But it’s also noticeable that any time Christmas was threatened it resulted in serious protest. Through history, then, Christmas has been “lovely for some; for others a pain.”   

And it still is. On the lovely side it’s been a valiant attempt at self-giving love, which is at the heart of who God is. It tries to create a little light in the darkness, bring families together, and for many people it’s the highlight of the year. They love buying gifts, love decorating the house inside and out, love seeing the children’s eyes gleam as they unwrap presents, love cooking up a storm, love the buzz of a house full of friends and relatives, and love the warm fuzzy feelings that Christmas creates.

But for others it’s a weighty burden of obligation. We must buy presents. We must wow the children. We must make Santa Claus magical. We must make the Christmas meal a work of art. We must have a large fir tree in the living room. We must send cards, hoping we don’t miss anyone essential, and we must do all these things even if we can’t afford them. 

For some that’s no pressure at all, “it comes with the territory,” but for others with large, dispersed and mixed-up families, it can be a nightmare of planning, risking all sorts of offence if some in the family feel cheated of the Christmas they had imagined. Gifts are a nightmare too: Who should you buy gifts for? And what do you give to someone who has everything? But anyone daring to say, “I’ve had enough of this malarkey, it’s driving me nuts,” is in for some serious, fire-breathing virtue-signalling. 

It’s interesting, then, that Jesus doesn’t require anything from us to celebrate his birth. He never did. Christmas is our dream child, not his. Paul writes in Acts 17:25, that “he isn’t served by human hands as if he needed anything, because he gives to all men life and breath and everything else.” 

We’ve got all we need from him – joy, peace and love, whether we celebrate Christmas, or not. Which is good news for those who think Christmas should be buried under ten feet of concrete, and good news for those who look to Jesus at Christmas for his joy, peace and love, and he comes through in spades.  

When “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over it,’” the goal was, to quote Paul in Romans 12:2, “to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

In other words, by tuning in to what God had in mind by making us in his image we would discover just how amazing his creation is, and therefore how amazing he is. And if we’d eaten off the Tree of Life we would’ve had God’s own life and spirit being lived in and through us too. So, where would our planet be now if we’d done that? 

Would we be keeping Christmas, for instance? Well, what would be the purpose of it when Jesus didn’t need to be born as a human being to save us? No need for Christmas then. But what about climate change? Well, we wouldn’t need to be chopping down millions of perfectly healthy trees every year at Christmas time, or using up millions more trees for wrapping paper, packaging and Christmas cards. So no worries about the effects of climate change either.  

But what we’ve got instead is a world that’s being asked to indulge us. And it does an amazing job too. Because ever since the first recorded celebration of Christmas on December 25, A.D. 336, Christmas has evolved into the season it is today that demands overindulgence. And it’s even state-sanctioned too, despite net zero by 2030. So, with the blessing of the powers that be, secular and religious, let’s eat, drink and be merry and forget the environmental impact of millions of tonnes of Christmas food waste releasing highly toxic methane, or the hundreds of thousands of miles of wrapping paper and billions of Christmas cards, many of which cannot be recycled. 

But what a mighty planet God created for us, so that despite all the plastic waste, the unwanted gifts, and the massive carbon footprint transporting all our goodies over great distances, it somehow survives the pollution, the landfills piling up with Christmas debris, and the increasing demand on its treasured resources to indulge us. 

How fortunate we are, therefore, that the planet isn’t what we’re depending on to sustain us, because it does have its limits. But above it all is one without limits, “sustaining all things by his powerful word,” Hebrews 1:3. 

We can rest assured, then, that in his capable, loving and powerful hands our amazing planet will carry on, wheezing and sighing for now at our foolish and wasteful ways, but knowing there’s a day coming “when he will judge the world with justice,” Acts 17:31, and we get the opportunity again – since we missed it the first time – to discover what God created us and this marvellous planet for.

In Matthew 1:20, Joseph is told to “take Mary home to be your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” Is it strange to believe, then, that the Holy Spirit might have been involved in our conception too? 

But the fact that our conception actually happened is surely proof of it, because what gave us life? Why did the fertilized egg we started off as decide to divide and create more living cells that automatically developed us into a little separate human?

Well, we wouldn’t be the first to wonder about this – or come up with an answer either – because in Job 33:4 Elihu told Job, “The Spirit of God has made me. And the breath of the Almighty gives me life” – just like God breathed into the first human in Genesis 2:7 to give him life too.

So the Holy Spirit was the Life-giver – a point backed up by Jesus himself in John 6:63 when he said, “It is the Spirit who gives life.” And the same “Spirit of God hovering over the waters” in Genesis 1:2, that gave life to all creation. In Scripture it’s made clear, then, that the Holy Spirit is the source of life.   

The Spirit was just as much the source of life in Jesus too – in both his conception and his life from then on. And Jesus willingly put himself in that situation, by emptying himself of all his divine power and “making himself nothing,” Philippians 2:7. As a human, then, his life’s work was only possible because “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,” Luke 4:18. 

Which is why he “breathed on his disciples and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” in John 20:22, so that their entire life’s work could be the product of the Holy Spirit too.  

Receiving the Holy Spirit later in their lives, then, was like a second conception, but still for the same reason, that the Holy Spirit would be the source of life in them and in what they did from then on – just like the Spirit descended on Jesus at his baptism in Luke 3:22 to be the source of life in Jesus’ ministry as well. 

In a human lifetime, therefore, there can be two conceptions by the Holy Spirit, the first in the fertilized egg that became who we are, and the second in our life’s work too.