You’ll hear a lot of crazy things this time of year. Advertisers of various sorts telling us all about the real meaning of Christmas.
Jay Leno’s book Headlines shows an advertisement for a dentist offering a special on dentures. The ad is tagged, “After all, the gift of chewing is what the holidays are all about.” Leno’s comment is, “That’s right. It’s not about helping people less fortunate than yourself. It’s about chewing.” Leno doesn’t seem to know the real meaning of Christmas either, but he came a lot closer than the dentist.
It’s so hard to stay focused with all the sales and commercials and parties and movies—ah, the movies! So many of them try to make you feel like Scrooge for not believing in Santa Claus.
Santa’s sleigh can’t get off the ground in Elf. Why? Because there’s not enough Christmas spirit—which Papa Elf tells us is directly related to the fact that “a lot of people down south don’t believe in Santa anymore”.
Of course, the classic Miracle on 34th Street won 3 Oscars for convincing a little girl—who knew there was no Santa Claus—that there really is a Santa Claus. The U. S. Judicial System and the Post Office proved it!
Get the sense people in Hollywood secretly want to believe in something? Anything?
Don’t get me wrong: these movies are entertaining. But they do add to the Christmas white noise—the mountain of distractions that can keep us from focusing on the Christ of Christmas.
Lt. Gerald Coffee spent seven years as a POW during the Vietnam war. During his second Christmas in camp he made an amazing discovery. He had been stripped of everything by which he measured his identity: rank, uniform, family, money. Alone, in a cramped three-by-seven-foot cell, he began to understand the significance of Christmas. Removed from all commercial distractions, he was able to focus on the simplicity of Christ’s birth. Although he was lonely and afraid, he considers that Christmas his most meaningful, because more than ever before, he understood the event.
You know what Christmas is all about. I should say: You know Who Christmas is all about. God became a man! I think I’ll write that again: God became a man. He stepped down from His throne—so far down that He became a human zygote. A microscopic fetus. “Immanuel” (God with us).
Why? So He could save us from our sins. So He could rise from the dead and secure eternal life for us. If that’s what Jay Leno had in mind, maybe he wasn’t so far off. Jesus Christ—the Second Person of the Triune God—humbled Himself to “help those less fortunate”. Those alienated from God. Sinners. Us.
Enjoy the Christmas season—giving and getting gifts, going to parties, watching the movies. If you get a new set of dentures, enjoy the gift of chewing. But refuse to be distracted. Help others stay focused. Worship. Remember. Thank the One called “Immanuel”—the real meaning of Christmas.
