A Johannine Christmas - Part 2

It is nice to celebrate a Matthean or Lukan Christmas (using the stories in these Gospels) but we must be aware of the danger of cultural distortions and the ‘wrapping paper’ syndrome. It is for this reason that there are Christians who don’t celebrate Christmas. Theirs is a stark ‘Markan Christmas’ – if we can use that term. Mark does not have any Christmas story or infancy narrative.

However, there is every reason to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus, the Incarnation and God’s Gift to us.

Perhaps, for a change, we could have a Johannine Christmas. John does not have any heart-warming Christmas stories but He describes the Incarnation in wonderful focus and clarity (John 1). He goes to the beginnings where we see Jesus as God with God (v. 1). Then we see the creation (“through him all things were made”, v. 3). We note the darkness (when sin entered the world), and then, the Incarnation –

Jesus is Word become flesh (v. 14) and light in the darkness (v. 5).

Jesus is God’s unique Gift to us; He is the “One and Only” (v. 14, 18). He is God’s indescribable Gift to us (2 Corinthians 9:15). Nothing that we give and receive at Christmas can match God’s Gift to us. He truly “pitched His tent among us” (John 1:14) and came as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (v. 29).

Tragically God’s Gift was not well-received. This “world did not recognize him” and “his own did not receive him” (v. 10-11). Yet the promise remains, that all who received God’s Gift would become the children of God (v. 12).

The Johannine account points to the Gift of Christmas without any distractions or sentimentalities. There is just the Gift; no packaging or wrapping paper; not embellished with cultural and popular practices – so that we do not miss the Gift that is extended to us.

Today we face the danger of wrapping the Christmas Gift with cultural and sentimentalised trappings and commercial glitz – that serve to turn our attention away from the Gift of Christmas. May we not be like the little child who ignored the gift and played with the wrapping paper.

Rather, may we receive into our hearts the best (and essential) Gift of Christmas from our Father in heaven. That is the best thing that can happen at Christmas.

Consider this:

Examine John 1:1-18. What is its central Christmas message? Who is Jesus and why is He God’s unique Gift to the world? Why is He the Lamb of God (John 1:29)? What is the world’s response to Him and what is the promise given to those who will accept Jesus?

Jesus pitched His tent among us (John 1:14). Reflect on the significance of this truth for the world and for you personally. How does this truth help you in your daily life?

Excerpted from Apprenticed to Jesus by Robert Solomon. © 2023 by Robert Solomon. Used with permission. All rights reserved.