Christmas is over. Christ lives on.
By: Pradeep K
Tags: Christmas, Kindness, Love, Jesus, Christianity

Christmas 2020 is over. It may be remembered as the loneliest Christmas the world might have spent in ‘peace time’.

As the Instagram stories disappear, the Whatsapp groups move on from the forwarded greetings, I cannot help but think, what is the point of Christmas ? What significance does it hold in the world today?

Is the message of the Christ still relevant in today’s context?

Spoiler alert : Yes it does. Yes, He does matter.

Let’s take a step back to see what does the Bible say about His birth.

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”)” — Matthew 1:23

Old Covenant

In Eden, God was with His first creation, Adam and Eve. They both rebelled against God which created the division between Heaven and Earth. Had they not done what they had done, we would all have been in Paradise forever and ever). The distance between human and God grew more and more. Humans acted He set up a covenant, a promise, with the people of Israel and rules that are to be followed in His temple.

Temples = Place where God and Human meet.

But since Temples are representation of God’s manifestation of Heaven, it was to be maintained Heaven like. Every sin had its wage. Prayachitam/Parigaram as one may call it in the Indian context. Animals were slain and the innocent blood took the place of us human sinners. This was all part of the Old Covenant.

If we were living on the Old Testament times, this would have been the norm.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 6: 23

The Bible clearly states that the wages of sin is death, eternal death. To escape this eternal death, the Old Testament people offered sacrificial offerings. But why should innocent animals be killed ? Good question.

New Covenant

When Jesus was born, He was given another name : Immanuel, which meant God With Us. This is significant because the distance between God and Humans reduced tremendously. He was now walking on Earth. He was amongst us. His message was one of love, one of mercy, one against injustice.

His New Kingdom, was based on love for neighbour, love as a friend, love for fellow human beings, love with compassion. No one looked at people like that before. No one touched lepers (who were restricted to city gates before). No one healed the sick like he did. No one talked about sharing one’s belongings with others. No one treated tax payers like He did. No one had listened to prostitutes and women in general like He did. In short no one loved humanity like He did.

His ultimate sacrifice was to take our place of the eternal death, nailed to the cross. He took the place on behalf of ALL of humanity, for ALL of the sins committed, for an eternal time. He did it without us asking for it, without any judgement, out of mercy for us. This Salvation is free, it is given to us for free.

In the Kingdom that Jesus came to establish, he did it without waging a war, without a revolution, with just His love.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” — John 3:16 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” — John 15:13

This is the Good News, the Gospel of the Kingdom, that He had asked his followers to tell the ends of Earth.

This Goodnews, for our broken world, our broken relationships and our broken systems, is relevant.

While we put so much faith in our governments, in politicians and our general hope that humans do good, we have failed. We have fallen to our own understanding and have kept God actively out of the equation.

The world needs more Mercy, more Grace, less judgement and more love.

Talking of Love, this what the Bible says :

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away

- 1 Corinthians 13: 4–8

This love is difficult to achieve, especially when you are hurt, intentionally or unintentionally. But this the love God wants us to fight for. This is what the world needs. More and more. The love as described in Corinthians. And what better to show us that than the life Jesus lead during His time on earth.