What Is The Spirit Of Christmas?

For so very many Christmas is not a happy time at all. It is a deeply painful, scary and lonely time. All around them are silver bells, silver bells singing, "It's Christmas time in the city. Children laughing, people passing, meeting smile after smile and on every street corner you'll hear silver bells, silver bells." No, I'm not trying to be Mr. Bah, Humbug. Nor am I planning to be the Grinch that stole Christmas.  I'm simply stating a fact and not one very difficult to grasp either. The so-called spirit of Christmas is a demon that dangles a candy cane before their eyes, but pulls it away every time they reach for it.

I got into this mood by meditating upon Romans 15:1-13, the Epistle reading for this second week of Advent, another week of preparing our hearts for the true celebration of Christmas. The apostle writes,

"We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me" (Psalm 69:9). 

The Apostle is telling us that the true spirit of Christmas is the Spirit of the Christ who was born in a stable and who emptied Himself for all of us weak, helpless, hopeless and lonely sinners. By quoting the ancient Psalm, the Apostle is saying that those words of Scripture were fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. In his adult life he was rejected by his family, particularly by his brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles (Mark 6:1-6). The government and the religious leaders plotted to kill him and succeeded. He died alone on the cross of his enemies.

Psalm 69 gives us insight into Jesus' feelings throughout those days, weeks and years of rejection and hatred. We are with him in those many lonely nights of prayer and most especially in the Garden of Gethsemane as we read,

"I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. . . I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. . . I am in distress. . . Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. . . I am afflicted and in pain. . ." 

He knows how we feel. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (Isaiah 53:4-6).

If the spirit of Christmas is indeed the Spirit of Christ, then we who have his life within our hearts, we who are strong in him have no choice but to reach out in accord with him to the weak around us. I am thinking particularly about the millions—yes millions—who try every day to mask their inner crying, despair and pain with alcohol, sex, food or any other drug of choice available. We who are strong have an obligation, writes the Apostle. It is an obligation imposed upon us by the Spirit of Christ. We are obliged to take up, to bear and to carry the burdens of those imprisoned by their despair and hopelessness. Those folks are not hard to find. They work next to us. They live across the street. They go to school with us. They are our relatives, sometimes even our best friends. Every day they reach for the candy cane and every day the demon pulls it away.

If indeed the spirit of Christmas is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, then we can find the true meaning of peace and joy by reaching out to those near to us in Jesus' name.