Are You Ready for Christmas?

Are you ready for Christmas?

Now that it’s mid-December, I’ve been hearing that question quite often: at church the last couple weeks, at lunch with a friend on Monday, and even on the radio. As one talk-show host put it, this question is just a normal greeting this time of year, sort of like asking someone how they’re doing or what they think of the weather.

But, what does “ready for Christmas” mean? Does it mean the tree and other decorations are up? Or the Christmas cards are in the mail? Or all the gifts have been purchased and wrapped? Or the house is cleaned for guests who are coming for a dinner party? Or, as the talk host said, is it just a way of saying “hi” in December?

While I recognize all the meanings I just mentioned, I think there are two other meanings worth considering as we approach this Christmas.

First, there is the question of readiness for Christ’s first coming. Was the world ready for it? Certainly, the coming of the Messiah had been wanted and anticipated throughout history. It had been foretold, and even predicted down to the timing (Daniel 9:25-26) and location (Micah 5:2) of his birth. God had set the time of Jesus’ incarnation from before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20), and chose the perfect time for it to happen.

Galatians 4:4-5 says, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

Consider the reasons why God’s timing was so good: the known world was at peace under the Pax Romana; sea travel for the apostles was safer because the Romans had suppressed piracy on the Mediterranean Sea; Roman roads sped up travel throughout the region; a common language (Greek) made the spread of biblical texts and letters easier; writing technology had advanced from cumbersome scrolls to book-form codices;  and the internet had not yet been invented (yes,that was an advantage). So, the world should have been ready for Christmas.

And yet, when the Messiah’s birth occurred, many were not ready for it. There were of course, people from most nations who did not know that a Savior was coming from the Jews. Others expected a glorious kingly event, with trumpets and chariots and cheering crowds, and did not even entertain the thought of Savior coming as a baby born in a stable in a backwater town like Bethlehem. And then there were some like King Herod, who with all Jerusalem was troubled at the news of Christ’s birth (Matthew 2:3), because it would upset the comfortable status quo they enjoyed.

So while the world was ready for the first Christmas – as far as the hopes of many and the suitable conditions for the event – not every person was ready to welcome and believe in the One who was to be born.

That situation continues even today, because most of the world is still not ready for the reality of the first Christmas. They don’t believe that Jesus was and is the Messiah. They either deny there will be a Christ, or they keep putting their hopes in someone yet to come. They latch onto one false Messiah after another, whether a religious or secular leader. Many don’t  acknowledge they even need a Savior, because they deny their sin and its consequences. For them, the answer to the question, “Are you ready for Christmas?” is “no.”

The second meaning of the question applies to Christians, to those who recognize that the Messiah was born, and celebrate that event. They attend special church services, decorate their homes, listen to Christmas carols, exchange cards and gifts, and enjoy gustatory feasts. But are they ready for Christmas spiritually?

1. Do they recognize their sinfulness and grieve for the sins that they know they have done?
2. Do they accept their need for a Savior, and their inability to save themselves?
3. Do they read the old, familiar Christmas Scriptures with true joy and wonder each time? Do they “love to tell the story,” and find “each time they hear it, so wonderfully sweet?” Are they “hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest?”*
4. Do they spend time praying, giving God praise and thanksgiving for what he has done in sending his Son into the world to save us?
5. Do they enjoy worshiping God with fellow Christians, bound together in love by the Holy Spirit?
6. Do they cringe when they hear movies and TV shows speak of the “true meaning of Christmas” as being anything other than the birth of Jesus?
7. Do they prefer Christian carols like “Joy to the World” over secular, winter songs like, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”?**
8. Do they marvel how the Creator of the universe could and would come into the world as one of us, in so small and helpless form?
9. Do they say, “Merry Christmas” and really mean it, not worrying about whether non-believers want to hear it or not?
10. Do they remember that the manger begins Christ’s journey to the Cross, and what that means for them and the world?

The final question is not about whether “they” are spiritually ready for Christmas, but whether “you” are. Amid all the hectic preparations for the season, with all the expectations you and others put on you for this holiday, are you feeling that joy and peace on earth which Christ’s birth should give? If not, take the time to evaluate what Christmas means to you, and why. And then have a wonderful and blessed celebration which refreshes your spirit!

Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Matthew 2:1-12; Luke 2:1-20.

• * From “I Love to Tell the Story,” by Kate Hankey, 1866.
• **”Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” by Randy Brooks, 1978.