Magyar Egyház, 1995 (74. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1995 / 4. szám
8. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ CHRIST IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON The tinsel and the Christmas lights, the decorations and the gifts under the Christmas Tree, the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh, the nativity scene all surround us as we make our approach to Christmas. But deep down in the heart every believer knows, that Christmas is more that all of this put together. Christmas is first and foremost is the celebration of the birth of our Lord. Let us look back through the passing Christian centuries, how this celebration came about, and what it meant to the people across the years. It is no doubt that the promise made by God in the Garden of Eden to our sinful parents Adam and Eve have remained a powerful force in the faith of all succeeding generations. The people of Israel, with whom God made the Old Covenant, lived in the hope and assurance that in the fullness of time the Messiah, the Savior would come. And in the fullness of time, God fulfilled His promise. It seemed however, that nothing has changed with His coming. The world continued to exist. People lived their usual lives and made their journey in the hope that at the end God will await for them in His Kingdom of Heaven. When Pope Julius the First authorized December 25th as a day of celebrating the birthday of Jesus in 353 A.D., no one ever thought that it would take on a form as it is today. When Professor Charles Folien decorated the Christmas Tree in America in 1832 with candles the very first time, did he ever dream what elaborate forms those decorations would take today? It has been a long time since 353 A.D., or even from 1832, but still longer from that dark night brightened by the special star that signaled the birthday of Jesus. Yet, as we come closer to another December 25th, it gives us another opportunity to pause and in the midst of the excitement and celebration, that we may consider again the event of Christmas and the person whose birthday celebration has coined the phrase: “Christ is the reason for the Season.” We would do well to remember that Jesus is the reason for the season. He is the heart of our Christmas celebration. It is His birthday that we come to celebrate. It is in His name that we gather as individuals or as a family or as a Church. The questions that rise deep down in the hearts are still the questions that has been raised by faithful people centuries before us. What kind of a man was this Jesus whose birthday has been so significant that it split time into B.C. and A.D.? Who really is the person that gives a reason for the season? What does the Bible say about Him? All Biblical writers seem to affirm that Jesus was a man. It may be difficult to believe the Biblical narrative of the virgin birth, but it is not the actual birth that gives Jesus its supernatural nature. It is the conception which was supernatural. The New Testament writers all assert in their writing that He was conceived by the Spirit of God. This is the great difference that set Him apart from all of us. His birth was as any other birth. He was born by a women whose time for delivery has come. He also grew up like any other person. When he became a man, he experienced what we all experience. He had to walk along the road of His own town like any other person, and when He did, He got tired from the walk and the labor as we all do. He lived the same life as we do. Physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually he lived the same life as you and I live every day. He played as a child plays, He worked as all of us do to secure the bread for our table. He was hurt by friends and foe as we all are. But when the Biblical writers speak about Him, they could not talk about Him without referring to a mysterious plus in Him. Jesus was not just a man. He was also divine. This is the mystery, when we have referred to Him in the sentence that He was conceived by the Spirit of God. Writing about His life, His work, His teachings, His miracles, His death, walking with him on the dusty roads of Palestine, the disciples, whom he has chosen, the people He taught finally recognized in Him that divinity, that God likeness that they were only able to address with the word “Immanuel” which means “God is with Us”. What they meant by this is, that in Jesus, they felt the very presence of God as they have never felt it before. In Jesus, they saw what until now only their imaginations were able to clarify, as to what God was like. Jesus was a man, but He was different from any other man who ever lived. They knew what that there had never been any other man like Him, and they would also confess that nor would be any other in the future. They became convinced that everything they ever dreamed of about God and the life given by Him, He embodied the best that life had to offer. Their faith, their commitment in the service of God brought them to the foundation of the Jewish religion and it was here that they borrowed the term to express what they thought about Him in the term of the “Messiah”, the greatest title that their religious faith could muster. They went to the realm of Greek thought and they found the term “Logos” meaning the “Word”. For us Christians, Jesus’s teachings are clear. We know what he said of Himself! And what he said of Himself forms the foundation of our faith. He said, that he was the way to God, that none can come to the Father but by Him. He also said,
