A More Radical View of Christmas

Dec 23, 2011 | 5 comments

by Steve Watters

It’s that time of year where you know it’s almost Christmas, but maybe you’re afraid you’re gonna go through the motions again and not find much meaning in your celebration. You’ve heard the messages about Jesus being the “reason for the season,” but it just isn’t resonating with your soul.

Maybe you need a more radical — even violent view of Christmas. I recommend a blog post by Mike Cosper, innovative worship leader and one of the founding pastors of Sojourn, a church I visited last year in Louisville, Kentucky. Here’s an excerpt:

The Scriptures tell us that something cataclysmic was going on. As Mary labored, an evil stirred that was so great, so devilish that it called for the blood of all Bethlehem’s infant sons. Our hero and has family were hunted by Satan himself and fled to Egypt, chased by an ancient evil throwing stars down from the sky.

Christmas is violent. It’s earth-shattering. The very order of things, the way the world worked, was being rewritten. In 1811, an earthquake in Missouri caused church bells to ring in Philadelphia and made the Mississipi River run backwards. When the Christ-child gasped his first breath, the hinge of history swung in a new direction, and hell shuddered. The assault on its gates had begun.

Finish reading here for a soul-stirring reminder of the urgency of Christmas.

USALady63 said the following on December 23, 2011 at 11:22 pm

Excuse ME???
why would I want a violent Christmas. Hello. are you Evil ?
Look! CHRISTMAS IS NOT VIOLENT. MAYBE YOU ARE BUT NOT JESUS.
4lizjo said the following on December 23, 2011 at 11:44 pm

I think the point isn’t about us and what we want and our comfort, but rather that when the light came into the world, the spiritual realm knew it and tried to prevent our salvation — which involved real violence… Not only was Jesus and his family threatened, other mothers lost their baby boys because Christ was born.
Rambutan said the following on December 24, 2011 at 12:16 am

The place I am currenlty living reminds me that Chirstmas is still “violent.” There is still a war going on for the souls of people and there are many who have yet to hear the Good News that Jesus came and He saves and He desires to be our Prince of Peace. The war that was going on then is still raging today. But praise the Lord, He is God and He will one day return to end all that is evil. But until that time we must all fight the good fight cherishing the fact that He has come and is our Savior. How I long for the time Jesus comes again.
forgiven34 said the following on December 26, 2011 at 1:08 am

Great article! Thank you for posting this.
Godman2010 said the following on December 27, 2011 at 4:42 pm

Thank you for this post. It reminded me that the birth of Christ was written about in Revelation. The epic battle and violence is written in the pages of Revelation how a beast waits to devour the baby born of a virgin. Satan did everything he could to prevent the birth and coming of age of our Savior Jesus Christ.

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