Meaning of Christmas and the message of Jesus

Today, 25 December, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, the son of God. What does this denote to mankind? According to Christian theology, this is God’s gift to mankind. The Grace of God is revealed in the birth of a child sleeping in the presence of not riches, but God’s own creatures.

The mystery surrounds that his birth has no male involvement but purely through the divine intervention and thus be called a sinless person, devoid of the original sin of Adam and Eve. The conception itself is divine intervention through an angel of God.

The angel communicated the message of God: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” He was named Immanuel. According the Hebrew language, Immanuel means “God is with us”. This name symbolises the prophesies in the Book of Isaiah where Isaiah foretells that a young virgin would conceive a child and call him Immanuel and when he grows in wisdom and stature, he would reject the wrong and choose a righteous path. Jesus was predestined to be born to Mary, the chaste woman, by God, and was conceived through the Holy Spirit.

The Bible provides two accounts which depict the events surrounding birth of Jesus. These biblical accounts are found in the Gospel of Matthew, namely Matthew 1:18, and the Gospel of Luke, specifically Luke 1:26 and 2:40. According to these accounts, Jesus was born to Mary, assisted by her husband Joseph, in the city of Bethlehem.

According to legend, the birth had taken place in a stable, surrounded by farm animals such as cattle and sheep. A manger, also known as “a feeding trough,” is mentioned in the Gospel of Luke 2:7, where the baby Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

A birth in a palace would have entailed many luxuries but the place of birth of Jesus was a humble ambience. Shepherds from the fields surrounding Bethlehem had been told of the birth by an angel, and they were the first to see the child. Popular tradition also holds that three kings or wise men (named Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar) visited the infant Jesus in the manger, though this does not strictly follow the Biblical account.

The Gospel of Matthew instead describes a visit by an unspecified number of magi, or astrologers, sometime after Jesus was born while the family was living in a house (Matthew 2:11), who brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the young child Jesus. The visitors were said to be following a mysterious star, commonly known as the Star of Bethlehem, believing it to proclaim the birth of a king of the Jews. It was an extraordinary heavenly sight. The commemoration of this visit, the Feast of Epiphany is also celebrated on 6 January, as it is the formal end of the Christmas season in some churches.

Christians celebrate Christmas in various ways. In addition to this day being one of the most important and popular for the attendance of church services, there are other devotions and popular traditions. In some Christian denominations, children re-enact the events of the Nativity with animals to portray the occasion with more realism or sing carols that brightens the event.

Every Christian house displays the Christmas tree or the crib, a small recreation of the Nativity, known as a Nativity scene or crèche, in their homes, using figurines to portray the key characters of the event. A long artistic tradition has grown of producing painted depictions of the nativity in art. Nativity scenes are traditionally set in a stable with livestock and include Mary, Joseph, the infant Jesus in the manger, the three wise men, the shepherds and their sheep, the angels, and the Star of Bethlehem.

Church historians say that celebration of Christmas began only after fourth century whereas it was Epiphany that was celebrated on 6 January. By middle of the sixth century, Christians had begun to observe ‘Advent’ that is the preparation for Christmas with fasting for 12 days from 25 December to 6 January. The birth of Jesus and Mother Mary were also referred to in the Holy Koran. The legend says that one of the three kings was from the Kingdom of Jaffna, Sri Lanka. The accuracy of this historical recording is subject to further debate and research.

Humility is a virtue that is fast disappearing in our society where access to money is considered the greatest feat in humanity. Many have perished prematurely whilst in pursuit of money. The idea of success is derived from socioeconomic status in our society where we tend to measure our worth by the acquisition, exhibition and hoarding of material goods.

The real purpose of celebrating the birth of Jesus can seem lost in the midst of glittery decorations and brightly-wrapped presents. The modest birth of Jesus was the beginning of our first message in authentic humanity. The lesson is to recognise that, because of Christ’s sharing in our humanity, now we are loved by God not for what we possess or what we do, but simply for who we are with all of our misfortunes, trials and tribulations, imperfections and failures. The birth of Jesus preceded the heavenly symbols, the stars and the message to the wise men. Jesus the King was born in a manger as his parents did not have the comfort of a palace.

The birth of Jesus was politically significant for the rulers of the day. The three wise men wanted to know the whereabouts of the one having been born king of the Jews because they had seen the star in the east and were eager to pay him homage. Herod, as King of the Jews, was exceedingly alarmed as he was of the view that a usurper might have been born and who would one day pose a grave threat to his rule and overthrow him from the seat of royalty. Those who wield political power were no different from those days. Herod had to mobilise every available machination to purge this new born baby rival. Herod consulted Astrologers and was told that star represented a ‘King is Born’.

Herod influenced the wise men to search every place so that he too can go and venerate this Jesus. It was a clever ruse. When he realised that wise men had outwitted him, he was furious. He mobilised his troops to slaughter all boys under the age of two. Through divine intervention the Joseph and Mary had by that time fled to Egypt to escape Herod’s madness.

The central message of Christmas is sharing with those who lack things. “It is the personal thoughtfulness, the warm human awareness, the reaching out of the self to one’s fellow man that makes giving worthy of the Christmas spirit” (quote from Isabel Currier).We live in world of poverty, misery and wars of all kind. The message of Christmas is peace and goodwill towards all people.

(The writer is a freelance journalist and political lobbying and government relations consultant.)