Christmas Is All Wrong

In sports they do a postgame analysis. Let's do the same for Christmas. You know Christmas is all wrong, right?

Christmas is the celebration of the Incarnation. Now, that's crazy. The Creator of the world took on flesh -- creation. The God of the universe became creature. He didn't arrive in a palace or have royal parents. He was laid in a feeding trough, born to poor parents. In fact His father wasn't even His father. His first visitors weren't the elite, but the lowly -- shepherds. Sure, angels announced His birth, but not to the world or even the upper echelon. A group of guys in a field with stinky sheep. It seems like every aspect of this story is just plain wrong.

It only gets worse in the long view. All humans will die, but Jesus was born for that purpose. He didn't cling to being in the form of God, but lowered Himself -- what Paul calls "emptied Himself" (Php 2:7) -- to death on a cross, the most shameful death one can imagine. This sinless Son of God would go on to be executed for crimes He did not commit in order to save people who were His enemies. And, perhaps the final indignity, He opted to make these enemies of His whom He died to redeem His Bride, His Church, His voice on earth.

It's wrong ... all wrong. No one else would have planned it that way. And, oh, God did plan it just that way. Christmas is a celebration of the counterintuitive, a Savior who is born as a child, a God who takes on human flesh, a Creator that takes the form of His created, a Lord who becomes a servant ... quietly ... in a small village in an obscure country ... among animals and enemies ... for their benefit. That's the day we just celebrated. Makes no sense ... unless, of course, you're God.