We Are Not Celebrating The Birthday Of A Philosopher

Here in the U.S.A. we have the annual controversy about Christmas trees in public places. Some would have them called Holiday trees. Others strongly object, saying that this has been an official holiday since 1870. In this holiday we celebrate the birth of a man whose philosophy is most meaningful to our country. So we must retain the term Christmas tree. However, as all believers know, Jesus persisted in calling himself God's Son. John's Gospel records Jesus openly proclaiming himself to be one with his Father. He is no mere man nor is he merely a philosopher.

"I and the Father are one." The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?" The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." - Jhn 10:30-33 ESV

The Gospels are packed with parallel statements.

• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. - Jhn 1:1-2 ESV
• But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." ... that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. - Jhn 5:17, 23 ESV
• Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." - Jhn 8:58 ESV
• All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ... The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, - Jhn 17:10, 22 ESV
• All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. - Mat 11:27 ESV
• Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. - 1Ti 3:16 ESV

We Christians at least are not celebrating the birthday of a mere man whose philosophy has been influential. Jesus himself will not permit it. Of course U.S. President Thomas Jefferson did indeed consider Jesus to be nothing more than a man. He purposely cut out all references in the Bible to Jesus' divinity, creating the well known Jefferson Bible, also known as The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. In this book Jefferson focuses on the words of Jesus, chiefly the Sermon on the Mount and his parables. He eliminates the miracles and ends the story with Jesus' burial. One edition also contains a very short section with some of Jefferson's other writings.

In his famous book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis makes this statement, 

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

Let us who believe in and trust in Jesus as living Savior and risen Lord make it abundantly clear in our proclamations. Jesus is not a mere philosopher. He is Emmanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:18-25). Hallelujah! Jesus, true God and true Man, is the reason we celebrate this season.