Birthdays

We don't all celebrate birthdays with the same fervor. Whether you expect cake, presents and surprises, or, if you are all too familiar with the concept of belated birthday cards, it is helpful to know that not all cultures are as excited about celebrating the anniversary of birth. We celebrate Jesus' birthday at Christmas, but in the New Testament there is no hint of such commemoration. (For this reason we are not sure of the actual date of Jesus' birth). Instead of celebrating birthdays, the people of Jesus' culture commemorated someone's 'death day'. In the case of Jesus, they celebrated neither, but made it their practice to celebrate the day of his resurrection. And they did this not annually, but weekly by commemorating Sundays.

Before you throw out your manger scene though, it is helpful to remember that it is not the holiday surrounding his birth that is important in scripture, but the meaning of his birth. It is like his death day which is understood as the culminating act of God earning our salvation for us. His birth also has great meaning as it is the beginning of the acts of God that earned our salvation for us. Colossians 1:15-23 speaks of Jesus' existence as God before he came to earth. Philippians 2:1-11 speaks of Jesus' humility coming to earth. And John's gospel speaks many times of eternal quality and humble birth of Jesus though he suffers greatly for us (see 1:1-18, 6:14, 7:25-31, 8:12-20, 8:58, 12:46, 16:28, 18:37).

There is no command from God to commemorate Jesus' birthday, but to know the meaning of his birth. This is the purpose of our advent focus this year. We take time to hear each other read scripture and consider what this means to us. God coming into the world is our only hope of salvation, a future with him, dominion over sin in our lives, the life of the Spirit, and belonging in his church.