“The Symbols of Christmas”
12-18-22
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. So, did any of the symbols of Christmas, presented by the kids, surprise you? For example, did you raise your eyebrows when they talked about Christmas cookies? I mean, that doesn’t sound like something with deep, theological meaning. And yet, as the children showed us, a simple Christmas tradition like that can perhaps help our faith to grow and grasp the mystery of God’s wondrous plan of salvation. That shouldn’t surprise us, though. All throughout the Bible God used common, everyday things to convey His saving truth. Think about it and you’ll see what I mean.
For instance, do you recall how God tested Abraham’s faith? The Lord told him to take his only son, whom he dearly loved, and sacrifice him as an act of faith. But just as he was about to do it, God stopped him. At that very moment, Abraham discovered a lamb stuck in a nearby thicket which he sacrificed instead. This incident was an image of how God was going to bring about salvation for mankind. Our heavenly Father would sacrifice His only Son, whom He loved dearly. Like that lamb caught in the thicket, Jesus would become a substitute and be sacrificed on the cross for us. His life would be given up in order to rescue us from eternal death. It was all a symbol of the promised Savior.
Fast forward to when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. God was about to send the 10th and final plague which would convince Pharoah to let His people go free. That plague was the death of the firstborn son. The Israelites would be spared from this disaster if they sacrificed a lamb and painted its blood on the doorposts of their homes. It was a sign of faith and it caused the angel of death to pass over their household. Inside the house, the Israelites ate the lamb. That meal became an annual feast called the Passover which commemorated how God had rescued them from death. This too was a symbol of the coming Savior.
A lamb which caused Abraham’s son to be rescued from death. Then a lamb which caused the children of Israel to be rescued from death. It’s no coincidence that a sacrificial lamb became a strong, spiritual symbol for God’s people. That’s why John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The Jews that heard it understood that John was saying something powerful about Jesus. He was announcing that the promised Savior had arrived and He would be the sacrificial substitute for us sinners.
My whole point is that an everyday thing was used by God to convey the good news of the Gospel. A common animal, became an eternal symbol of salvation. The danger for the Jews was that their Passover celebration became a yearly ritual, steeped in traditions that most people didn’t understand. And I fear that can happen to us with our Christmas celebration. There are reasons behind much of what we do and there are symbols involved that point us to the Savior. But have they just become traditions and meaningless rituals? Yes, I realize that many of these symbols of Christmas have been commercialized. That doesn’t mean we can’t reclaim the deeper, spiritual meaning. When the angel appeared to the shepherds on the night Christ was born, he told them about everyday things that would be a sign to them: swaddling clothes wrapped around a baby lying in a manger. Those were signs that the Savior had indeed been born in Bethlehem. I pray that we will pause and meditate on these symbols and let them direct our focus to that glorious birth of our Savior who was born to save us from our sins. May God grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.