The True Meaning of Christmas
Robert W. Pommerville – December 2008
Every time we hear that a speaker’s topic is “The True Meaning of Christmas”, we know that the talk will begin by stating that Christmas isn’t really about Santa Claus, or presents, or parties, or Christmas bonuses, or big dinners – wait, we might have to make an exception for big dinners. But you will hear that Christmas is about the babe born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago, and in one sense, it is. But in fact, it is really about something more – something so immense in scope that it is always difficult for us to fully comprehend it.All of our Heavenly Father’s planning and preparation, all of his interest in his children and all of his desires for them, all of his aims and goals for the entire universe, came down to a singular moment in a specific time and place on this earth in a garden called Gethsemane, and at a place called Golgotha, and in a Garden Tomb; all of which are located outside of the walls of the city of Jerusalem in the Kingdom of Judah. Without these three places and what happened in them in God’s eternal plan, everything else would have been a colossal waste – everything. Without the events involving one particular Man in that olive vineyard over two thousand years ago, God’s purposes would have been utterly frustrated. Sin, death, decay, destruction, hell, and endless torment would reign supreme forever and ever. If Gethsemane and Golgotha had turned out to be places associated with suffering and failure rather than suffering and triumph, everything that went before and everything that came afterward would have been reduced to a series of meaningless events in the eternal scheme of things, for there would have been no eternal life. Deterioration, disorder, and chaos would ultimately fill the vastness of the universe; all beauty, human kindness, refinement, and acts of goodness would be forgotten as wasted energy. Truly, Gethsemane was the place where eternity hung in the balance.
Scientists tell us that the natural order of things in our universe is an irrevocable, steady movement toward decay: from life to death, from organization to chaos, from a condition or state of lesser degeneration to one of greater degeneration (a concept called entropy). This state of being is true for all kingdoms and creations – animals, plants, stars, and other systems. Without Christ’s atonement, human beings and the worlds on which they reside would be locked forever in the vise grip of death and dissolution. But with and through Christ’s atonement, all things are made new. The process of decay is not only halted but reversed. Because of the Atonement, which includes the events in Gethsemane as well as those at Golgotha and in the Garden Tomb, all things in the universe are empowered, renewed, and revitalized. Thus, Christ is the light and the life of the world.
The scriptures teach us exactly what the atonement means:
“And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.
And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
Now the spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold this is the testimony which is in me.”
It seems that suffering for our sins was only part of the great atoning sacrifice of the Savior in the Garden and at Golgotha – He also suffered for our pains, our sicknesses and our infirmities; and He suffered to save us all from death and from meaninglessness. We will all live forever because of Him. He also suffered to provide a way for those of His children who would be obedient and humbly accept His gospel and endure to the end to be exalted and to live forever in the presence of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Please pay attention to a statement by C.S. Lewis concerning the Savior’s temptation and atoning experience:
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is; after all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives into temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.
That is why bad people in one sense know very little about badness. They’ve always lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means – the only complete realist.”
Yes, Christmas is about the child lying in the manger in Bethlehem, but only because that child symbolizes what it was he was sent to this earth to do. The great and infinite atoning sacrifice of the Savior Jesus Christ – the eternity shaping events in Gethsemane, at Golgotha and at the Garden Tomb – made life for all of us meaningful and significant. Thus, Christmas is about us, about you, about me, it is about the man and the woman that we now are, and it is about the man and the woman that we may become. It matters that we learn to forgive others, that we perform many acts of goodness and kindness, that we learn to love everyone, that we build families into eternal units of exaltation and glory, that we learn, finally, to give all that we have and are and all that we ever will have or be to our Father in Heaven and to trust Him in everything. I testify that Jesus, the babe of Bethlehem, is the maker and finisher of our salvation, our Savior, the great Jehovah, God of Heaven and Earth, our friend and advocate with the Father. I know Him – I trust Him – and I love Him.
That we might learn to become the very best we can be, that we might learn to become more like the Savior each and every day of our lives, that is what Christmas is really about, and it is my prayer that we might so live and so learn, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
