The True Meaning of Christmas: A Theological Perspective from John Leith

Here is a set of comments on the meaning of Christmas by one of my seminary professors, John Leith. I wanted to share them with you. From John H. Leith, Basic Christian Doctrine, pp. 146-147.

The birth of Christ came to be celebrated in Rome on December 25 sometime between [A.D.] 325 and 354. Again, the determining factor in the choice of the date was a pagan festival. The non-Christian world observed December 25 as an important festival in honor of the sun. In the festival of Epiphany on January 5-6 and Christmas on December 25, the Christian community deliberately set the Christian celebrations over against the pagan celebrations of the power of nature.

For Christian communities Jesus Christ was the son of righteousness. Augustine declared that we celebrate not the sun but him who created the sun. The choice of a birth-date for the celebration of the coming of Jesus Christ was done not on historical grounds but on theological grounds.

It is also significant that Christmas developed after the promulgation of the Nicene Creed. In the case of the Epiphany and Christmas festivals, the Christian community on theological grounds was saying that the ultimate fact in life is not the forces of nature – neither the mysterious powers of the Nile nor the light of the sun – but God, who is incarnate in Jesus Christ.

The celebration of Christmas in the northern hemisphere came at the time of the winter solstice. The Christmas festival was the theological answer that Christians gave to the encroaching darkness, a darkness that must have been overpowering before the days of electric lights or even good gas lanterns. From the beginning the significance of Jesus was expressed in terms of light. As the Nicene Creed says, he is “light from light.”

Christmas was the Christian community’s answer to a paganism that sought to find the meaning of life in the enhancement of the vitalities and energies of life. Yet the ironic fact is that the Christian community has always been subject to the temptation to turn Christmas back into a nature festival. For this reason the Protestant Reformers, especially Calvin and the Puritans, opposed the observance of Christmas. Christmas had become the occasion for gluttony and for excessive drinking as well as idleness. Instead of being the Christian community’s answer to paganism that found the meaning of life in the exultation of the vitalities and energies of life, Christmas became itself the time when those vitalities and energies were exploited.

Christmas is appropriately a time for great joy – and, in particular, joy in the created world. The God who became incarnate in Jesus Christ is also the God who created the world. Hence, no good theological purpose is served by denying that Christmas is a time for joy, for love, for the sharing of gifts and greetings, and for family festivals.