a myopic christmas

my·op·ic | [mahy-op-ik, -oh-pik]

-adjective

1. Ophthalmology. Pertaining to or having myopia; nearsighted.

2. Unable or unwilling to act prudently; shortsighted.

3. Lacking tolerance or understanding; narrow-minded.

A few words of seasonal wisdom from Chuck Colson on CT.

Sometime this Christmas season, you are sure to hear those rousing words of Handel's Messiah, taken from Revelation 11:15: "The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ" (ESV). Tradition has it that the music so moved King George II that he stood to his feet out of respect for an even greater King. The rest of the audience followed, as have audiences for generations since. The Hallelujah Chorus is the culmination of our Messiah's story, a story that Handel rightly showed was foretold by the Prophets, heralded in the Annunciation, and has at its heart a message about a king and a kingdom.

Sadly, that kingdom message is often missed in our saccharine retelling of the Christmas story. Somehow we glaze over the angel's words to Mary, that she will give birth to a son whose "kingdom will never end" (Luke 1:33). The myopia continues as we read the Gospels. We skim over pages of kingdom references. We miss Christ's inaugural address when he opens the scroll of Isaiah and proclaims that Scripture has been fulfilled in the people's hearing (Luke 4:21). We muddle through the parables that tell us repeatedly, "The kingdom of God is like …." And we glance over the very reason our Savior was crucified, a sign crudely scrawled beneath the cross: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" (John 19:19).

Along the way, the Good News is truncated. An earth-shaking, kingdom-sized announcement is reduced to a personal self-help story. Our gospel has grown too small.

As I noted previously, the kingdom-natured, eschatological significance of Jesus' birth is largely overshadowed, not only by consumerism and commercialization, but by a narrowly-tailored Christmas theology. Consequently, the gospel is effectively "truncated," obstructing a Christ-follower's responsibility to, in the words of Schaeffer, "communicate the whole gospel in understandable terms."

In the midst of seasonal preparation, we must bear in mind the previous, present, and imminent significance of that which Pascal described as "the good news, which to me is irresistible." Otherwise, we undoubtedly rob the Christmas season of its distinctive merit, muffle the good news, and mitigate the glory our Lord's birth.

May we proclaim the entirety of the gospel in this final day of the Advent season, and in the days to come.

[ Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free ]

[JSD]