Ah, when we wake up in the morning it will be Christmas Day, 2004! It is the most joyous day of the rolling year, yet sadly, many, many people, including more than a few professing Christians, will miss it.
“But Pastor,” you say, “how can that be? Why, the stores and malls have been playing Christmas music since Halloween. Plus, they have had their Christmas displays up for quite some time, and the television commercials have been hawking toys, games and gadgets for kids since before that. With all of the hype, I would think it impossible to miss Christmas!”
Well, you are correct. It would seem unfathomable that anyone could miss Christmas, with all of the media promotion and hubbub that surrounds this season each year. Yet, miss it they will. Multitudes of people will miss Christmas tomorrow, just as they have missed Christmas for years, because they do not have a clue as to what Christmas is all about! Despite, or possibly because of, all of the advertising, promotion and publicity Christmas gets each year, the majority of the people in the world will miss Christmas, because the true meaning of Christmas has become obscured to the extent that knowledge of the Truth of Christmas is almost extinct.
For Christians who know the Lord, Christmas is a time to focus on the birth of our Savior and Lord. But even we can get so caught up in the whirlwind of activity that comes at this time of the year, that in all practicality, we too can miss Christmas. Satan has so cluttered Christmastime with so much “stuff” that the true meaning becomes easily lost.
But the fact that people today miss Christmas is not a modern phenomenon. For you see, when Christ was born in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago, most people missed Christmas then also. But we can, if we examine why they missed Christmas, lessen the odds greatly on our missing it this year. Luke 2:7, says, “Mary gave birth to her firstborn Son; and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
In this passage we find the very first person to miss the first Christmas, who was right there at the location where this blessed event took place: the innkeeper. Now we do not know much about the innkeeper, except that he was unable to take Mary and Joseph in, because he had no room for them. I don’t think he was being mean or hostile. It was just that there were so many people in town because of the census, that his place was simply full to the brim. I believe that was the reason that he missed Christmas. He was so busy and preoccupied with running his business, that he simply allowed the event to take place right under his nose, and yet personally, he missed it!
There are an awful lot of people running around today who are much like that innkeeper of so long ago. The chambers of their hearts and spirits are so full of stuff that hardly matters, their lives are such constant worries about business, their minds are so cluttered with the hustle and bustle that has become the Christmas Season, that they miss the Christ of God! It grieves my heart to know that so many people get so caught up in the lights, shopping and material gifts of Christmas, that they will one day wake up in eternity without God.
Let’s look at another man who missed the first Christmas. His name is King Herod. This King missed Christmas, even though the birth of Jesus took place within the shadow of Herod’s Palace, because of his jealous fear. He was afraid of Jesus because the Magi had called Jesus, “The King of the Jews.” Herod was not pleased. In fact, he was furious and scared. Herod was afraid that he would lose his position and power to this other King, Jesus Christ. Herod was not going to let that happen, so he came up with a solution to his problem. What was that solution? Herod ordered “all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under” slaughtered! (Matthew 2:16) He figured that would destroy any threat to his power and his throne.
There are many “Herods” out there in this world today. Oh, they may not be kings, but they are nonetheless afraid of Jesus. They are fearful of giving up their own plans, priorities, values and morals (or lack thereof). They refuse to come to Jesus because they are afraid He will “cramp their style” or “ruin their fun”. How about you? Have you rejected or ignored Jesus because you are afraid of the claim He will lay on your life? Do you want to be master and king of your own life and little kingdom? If so, that is a tragedy. Because no matter how big you think your kingdom may be, His Kingdom is infinitely larger and more glorious.
Next is a group of people who collectively missed that first Christmas. These guys should have known better and they remind me of some of the “learned religious scholars” in our seminaries and pulpits today. These are the Scribes and the Chief Priests that Herod called in to discuss what the Magi had told him. The Scribes and the Chief Priests were indeed very learned religious men. They had studied Scripture since their youth and were extremely familiar with all of the prophecies concerning the awaited Messiah. They knew that the birthplace of their Messiah was prophesied by Micah to be Bethlehem, yet they were unwilling to travel the few miles to see if indeed this baby boy was their long awaited King and Redeemer.
So why did these guys miss Christmas? Pure indifference. They simply did not care. They were very smart, had all what we would call “the book learnin’”, all the head knowledge. They just knew that they did not need a Messiah, because they thought themselves to be perfect keepers of the Law. In their minds, they were all that God could ever ask them to be. So as a result, they had no room in their system or their lives for the Son of God!
Again, there are many, many people today who will miss Christmas because they don’t realize that they are sinners in need of a personal Savior. They may love the lights, decorations, and presents of Christmas, but they show no interest in Jesus at all because they do understand their need to be saved from God’s wrath and eternal damnation. They don’t understand Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death…”.
Nor do they understand that we are all sinners in need of a Savior without whom we cannot escape the eternal fires of Hell. They do not understand that we must compare our goodness not to one another, but to the absolute perfect goodness of God. They do not understand that when we do that, when we compare ourselves to God Almighty, there is not one person alive who could find their goodness perfect enough to warrant an eternity spent in Heaven. As a result, they are unable to find and accept the cure because they do not admit, or in many cases even know, that they have the disease!
Now let’s look at the Romans. They also missed Christmas. The Romans are ever-present in the life of Jesus. It was before Pilate, the Roman governor, that Jesus appeared before His crucifixion. Jesus was executed by the Romans. Roman guards made up the false story about His Resurrection to cover up the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. The Romans missed Christmas because they worshipped their own false gods and did not care one way or the other about Jesus, Christians or Jews. The Romans worshipped their idols and Jesus just did not fit in.
The world we live in is full of people worshipping their own idols and gods. Although most of them do not worship little statues as they did during Jesus’ time, we still have our idols today. Some worship money. Some worship power. Some worship cars, boats, houses, sports figures, movie stars and entertainers. These things and people are the pagan gods of today. They are the idols of the 21st century man. If you are worshipping any or all of those, you will miss Christmas tomorrow, just as the Romans missed Christmas some 2000 years ago.
Finally, I want to look at the people pf Nazareth. The fact that they missed Christmas is the saddest situation of all. Jesus spent thirty years of His life in Nazareth, yet the people there failed to recognize Him for who He was. Luke 4 relates the tragedy that happened when Jesus revealed His true identity in the local synagogue. Just after He read Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Himself, Jesus said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Then all of the people there began to wonder and say things like, “What is he talking about?” “Is this not Joseph’s son?” They knew Joseph’s son and they did not think him anything special. As a matter of fact, after Jesus finished speaking, the people tried to throw Him off a cliff. But the Bible says, “But passing through their midst, He went His way.”
So why did the people of Nazareth miss Christmas? They missed it because of over-familiarity. Over-familiarity is a deadly thing because it leads to apathy and unbelief. When you have heard something many times without doing anything about it, such familiarity can breed contempt. We can become so complacent with hearing the Christmas story every year that we develop a heart of stone. We need to respond to Jesus while our heart is soft or we risk never responding to Him because our heart has hardened to stone.
In conclusion, I am here to tell you that there are many, many ways for us to miss Christmas this year and every year. The thing is, behind every reason is unbelief! Many people just simply refuse to believe in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, many more say that they believe, but when you get right down to it, deep down, they really do not believe that He is Who He says He is. They believe that Jesus was a “good person”, a “great teacher” and a “wonderful rabbi”. But they do not really believe that Jesus was God-the-Son.
How about you? If you have been missing the reality, the Truth of Christmas, please know that if you will simply receive the Lord Jesus as your very own Savior and Lord tonight, if you will believe in His name as the name above all others, if you will trust Him and put your life, your eternity, in His hands, then tomorrow morning Christmas will be real to you.
I wish to close with a poem sent to me from Megan Thomas.