Christmas Is in Need of Radical Reformation

In all the hustle and bustle of Christmas activity, it seems as if we lose Christ in the midst of it all. We must learn to slow down and quiet our souls if we can celebrate Jesus during this time.

My theological mentor, A. W. Tozer, wrote the following article many years ago. It seems just as relevant today.

Christmas, as it is celebrated today, is badly in need of a radical reformation. What was at first a spontaneous expression of an innocent pleasure has been carried to inordinate excess. In one section of Chicago, for instance, the excited citizenry vie with each other each year for the biggest, gaudiest, and most vulgar Christmas tree, on the porch, on the lawn, along the street; and one gigantic, flashily dressed and cold but determinedly smiling Santa Claus drives a fully lighted herd of reindeer across the yard and over the house!

How far have we come in the corruption of our tastes from the reverence of the simple shepherds, the chant of the angels, and the beauty of the heavenly host! The Star of Bethlehem could not lead a wise man to Christ today; it could not be distinguished amid the millions of artificial lights hung aloft on Main Street by the Merchants Association. No angels could sing loudly enough to make themselves heard above the raucous, earsplitting rendition of “Silent Night” meant to draw customers to the neighborhood stores.

In our mad materialism, we have turned beauty into ashes, prostituted every normal emotion, and made merchandise of the holiest gift the world ever knew. Christ came to bring peace, and we celebrate His coming by making peace impossible for six weeks of each year. Not peace but tension, fatigue, and irritation rule the Christmas season. He came to free us of debt, and many respond by going deep into debt each year to buy enervating luxuries for people who do not appreciate them.

He came to help the poor, and we heap gifts upon those who do not need them. The simple token given out of love has been displaced by expensive presents given because we have been caught in a squeeze and don’t know how to back out of it.

Not the beauty of the Lord our God is found in such a situation, but the ugliness and deformity of human sin.

A.W. Tozer