Christmas or Not?
As fairly new Christians and freshmen in Bible college, my wife and I didn't celebrate the Christmas holiday in the '70's. Someone had informed us of those dubious "origins" of Christmas in pagan worship and the medieval "Christ Mass" of the Catholic Church. Christ probably wasn't born on December 25th anyway, we were told. Not wanting to do anything offensive to God, much to the disapproval of our earthly family, we wrote home to California and nixed the traditional family celebration. How could we honor God or have anything to do with something that came out of paganism? Needless to say, they (the earthly family) weren't impressed.
Several years went by with no tree in the house in December. We weren't sure, so we didn't participate. Then someone pointed out that passage in John 10:22ff. The Jews celebrated a non-Biblical holiday called the Feast of Dedication (also known as the Feast of Lights or Channuka). I say "non-Biblical" because the Feast of Dedication originated between the Testaments. It was never commanded by God in recorded Scripture. It was a Jewish tradition with a lot of things in it that originated with man, not God.
So how did Jesus respond to this non-Biblical holiday? Did he stay home and refuse to participate? No! He was right there in the temple amid the celebrants taking advantage of the teaching opportunity. Alas! For us, at least, we had the answer! Today we celebrate the holiday (much the same as we do the Fourth of July). But we understand that it isn't an especially holy day (any more so than any other day).
I rejoice that people remember His birth each year. Even non-Christians get thoughtful and teary-eyed at Christmas. I intend to be right there among them, using the opportunity to teach them more about the baby who was born to be the Savior of the world.
Dave Redick