We celebrate Christmas on December 25th – but is that a fact or a farce?
Merry Christmas ,
As I write this it’s Christmas Eve. Presents are under the tree and already the house smells like the preparations for Christmas eating. It’s a wonderful time of the year!
But is it the right time?
Is December 25 really the day that Jesus was born?
And does that matter?
I’ve always thought that it was very unlikely that December 25 was the actual day. Or even close to it.
My main logic comes from what I read in Luke 2:1. Caesar Augustus issued a decree that everyone should travel to their hometown and complete a census. That’s a clue that has loomed large in my understanding of the nativity.
That wasn’t the kind of thing that would be very effective in the middle of winter. Remember that in those days, they didn’t have a lot of paved roads. Travel by sea in winter was dangerous because of storms. Travel by land would have been a messy, muddy slog through the cold. Even in the relatively temperate Mediterranean basin.
I could definitely see that kind of an order happening over the summer when travel conditions would have been better. But in the middle of winter isn’t really an ideal time to do this.
Not that Caesar Augustus really cared what people thought about him. He was above all that. But the key to giving orders like a census is that people actually are able to comply. And I don’t think that a middle-winter timeframe would have been ideal for that.
I’m sure the apostles knew when Jesus birthday occurred. After three years of ministry with Him it was almost certain to have come up. But we have no record of them ever writing that down. So we really have no way of knowing when it was.
In fact there was no celebration of Jesus birthday for the first several centuries of Christianity. It wasn’t a thing that people made a big deal about. Resurrection day and Pentecost were really big deals. That was definitely something to celebrate – and we know when those occur. So it’s pretty easy to put them on the calendar.
In those early days, earthly birthdays weren’t the most important date. Martyrdom dates were much more important. Who cares about when a person came into this mortal existence? What was really critical was when they entered glory!
So the early church was more geared to celebrate deaths than births.
We’re kind of the opposite today. If you’ll recall I made a reasonably big deal earlier this year about my spiritual birthday 50 years ago. Today we tend to shy away from death and prefer birth.
So why celebrate on December 25th?
Well, at the simplest level, we have to have a date. And this is one of 366 possible.
There are a couple theories about why this it the time.
One says that December 25th works because it’s 9 months after the traditional date of the Annunciation (when the angel Gabriel told Mary that she had been selected and would bear the Son of God). Yes, the traditional date for the Annunciation (literally “the speaking” or “the announcement”) is March 25th. So 9 months later would be December 25.
That’s one explanation.
The other big theory is that the early church liked to co-opt major pagan holidays and redirect them to Christian purposes. And December 25 is just 4 days after the Winter Solstice – the day of the year with the shortest period of sunlight. All over the pagan world they recognized this cycle and celebrated “the return of the sun” as the days started to get longer.
The Romans had a holiday called Sol Invictus (The Day of the Unbeatable Sun) that was right round December 25. So it was potentially repurposed. This allowed the people to continue their traditional celebrations – but point them in a Christian direction.
Either way, December 25 is the day that we celebrate – even though we have no reason to believe that it’s actually the day the event occurred.
Does this matter?
I don’t think so.
There is no special benefit in terms of putting the celebration on the actual date. It doesn’t make the point of the celebration more or less potent.
I like to think of Christmas in terms of the “Celebration of the Advent” or the Celebration of the Coming. That’s what really matters.
The name Christmas draws back to the Catholic mass. That’s not something that I find particularly compelling or helpful. It’s traditional so I go with it. But what matters is that baby Jesus was born in a manger, the Lamb of God come to take away the sin of the world.
He came.
It was a necessary step in the plan of redemption. If He did not come, then He could not die – and all of salvation falls apart then.
In some ways, I think it’s appropriate to celebrate the Advent every day of the year. Because every day we need to remember what Jesus did for us.
He started small. Inauspicious. Frail and fragile. In a manger of all places, on the outside looking in. But that just goes to prove that He didn’t pull any rank. He came for you and for me. And He did it just like us.
Christmas starts the clock ticking to get to the Resurrection. Just as His birth started the clock ticking on God’s redemption plan.
So no, I don’t think Jesus was actually born on Christmas day. And no, I don’t think that matters as long as we believe that He DID come.
Because that’s what matters forever.
Merry Christmas!
Dennis
