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Have you lost the Christmas spirit? These days, it’s easy to do. Easy money and the incessant secular drive toward profit can easily drown out the spiritual majesty that recalls the birth of the Messiah. His gift to humanity disappears in a myriad of replicas, each meant to convey the meaning of the real thing, but cheap by comparison.It’s that season again. The rush is on. The global machine is in high gear. Electronic credits and debits hum through the lines at record speed. For at least the last two months, shipments of toys, clothes, appliances, machines, gadgets, goodies, widgets, doodads and special prizes and surprises have been generated by the millions. The quest for that perfect Christmas gift rises to peak importance.Motivated by the very human urge to love and be loved, we plot, plan and calculate. We search, research and investigate. We devote time, energy and planning to make Christmas the perfect day. Our motive for all this activity and expenditure may be sterling and flawless, born of the desire to bestow the favor of the season upon the deserving recipient. Or it may be a flawed attempt to compensate for wrongs done throughout the year.One’s giving might even drift to the dark side. Christmas gifts may be politically calculated to achieve some desired effect for entirely selfish purposes. A bribe in the form of a gift is somehow acceptable. The internal dynamics of families, businesses and government bear witness to many gifts of deceit.In the Christmas rush, which is moving more quickly every year, cynicism is often the chief residual product. Love can turn to disillusionment; the season can end in fatigue and frustration. The search for its "true spirit" becomes an annual quest, particularly for Christians. Some give up in disgust and say that the birth of Christ has nothing to do with the modern Christmas. But it does.Indeed, the "Christmas spirit" is the real heart of the season. The term has long since been implanted into our vocabulary as an eminent reality, something to be experienced and memorialized. Or, as is often the case, to be sought without hope of realization. Often the muttering is heard: Christmas has become too commercialized. Of course it has.The question is, can the Christmas spirit be legitimately expressed in monetary terms? Of course it can, and often is. The answer is, absolutely, yes!Three Renowned Gifts
The gifts of the Magi were of extreme value. Though they were not given at Christmas, as we now know it, they present an archetype for the giving of Christmas gifts. In fact, the Magi, those fabulously wealthy kingmakers from the East, came to visit the young toddler, Jesus. Their gifts were symbolic, but were, no doubt, far more than that.It is well known that Jesus was not actually born on the 25th of December. From calculations based upon the course of Zacharias’ priesthood given in Luke 1:5, we can actually calculate the birth of his son, John the Baptist, to a date in mid-March. Jesus would have been born six months later, probably on Rosh Hashanah, as given in Luke, chapter 2, when shepherds were "keeping watch over their flocks by night."
Some months later, maybe at the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication, the Magi came to Bethlehem (the "wise men" of Matthew 2:1) to visit the toddler Jesus. This would have been around the time represented by the modern Christmas date of December 25.They came from Persia as men of vast wealth and power. They are said to have had the power to make and break monarchies. They were called Magi, from the Greek Magoi, a word borrowed from the Persian language. It designated their caste, and has nothing to do with "magic" as we now think of the term.They were monotheists, who had been heavily influenced by Jewish beliefs and the teachings of the prophets of Israel. They came to Bethlehem in their official role, to confer upon Jesus, the title of King and High Priest of Israel...
The gifts of the Magi were of extreme value. Though they were not given at Christmas, as we now know it, they present an archetype for the giving of Christmas gifts. In fact, the Magi, those fabulously wealthy kingmakers from the East, came to visit the young toddler, Jesus. Their gifts were symbolic, but were, no doubt, far more than that.It is well known that Jesus was not actually born on the 25th of December. From calculations based upon the course of Zacharias’ priesthood given in Luke 1:5, we can actually calculate the birth of his son, John the Baptist, to a date in mid-March. Jesus would have been born six months later, probably on Rosh Hashanah, as given in Luke, chapter 2, when shepherds were "keeping watch over their flocks by night."
Some months later, maybe at the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication, the Magi came to Bethlehem (the "wise men" of Matthew 2:1) to visit the toddler Jesus. This would have been around the time represented by the modern Christmas date of December 25.They came from Persia as men of vast wealth and power. They are said to have had the power to make and break monarchies. They were called Magi, from the Greek Magoi, a word borrowed from the Persian language. It designated their caste, and has nothing to do with "magic" as we now think of the term.They were monotheists, who had been heavily influenced by Jewish beliefs and the teachings of the prophets of Israel. They came to Bethlehem in their official role, to confer upon Jesus, the title of King and High Priest of Israel...
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As in the days of Noah....
