Merry Christmas! (Is This Too Late?)
No, this is not late. I don't have the date wrong nor am I confused about the season. I know it is the Easter season. But Christmas and Easter are so intertwined, so interdependent, that it's impossible to have one without the other.
Obviously, Christ could not have risen from the dead had he not been born. But more than that, without his resurrection, we would have no reason to celebrate his birth.
The birth of Jesus was difficult and shrouded in shame and suspicion. Mary became pregnant before she was married. She and Joseph claimed it was a "virgin birth", but not many people believed that. His first thirty years passed with little significance. But when Jesus was thirty years old, he began itinerant preaching and attracted twelve close followers. They say he performed some miracles, but after only three years one of his closest followers betrayed him, the crowds who had followed him hoping for a miracle quickly turned against him, the religious court convicted him, and the occupying government crucified him between two common thieves. He wasn't even given a hero's funeral but was quickly buried in a borrowed tomb.
If that's all there was to the life of Jesus, Christmas would not be a season to celebrate. It would be a time to stay indoors, draw the curtains, and have a quiet time of contemplation over what might have been. It would be a time to send sympathy cards to the few sad friends who still believed in that deluded Jew who fancied himself some sort of a prophet.
But that wasn't the end!
Three days later the stone rolled away, light burst forth from the tomb, and Jesus stepped out alive for evermore. He had defeated death, conquered the grave, overcome the curse of sin, and now offers life to all who would follow him.
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? (1 Cor. 15:54-55)
Because of the resurrection, we now have a reason to celebrate Christmas. Whenever anyone—sinner, skeptic, or saint—celebrates Christmas in any fashion, they testify to the reality of the resurrection. Because the only reason to celebrate Christmas is that Jesus is alive!
Without the resurrection, there is no Christmas.
Merry Christmas! He is risen!