“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” - Isaiah 9:2
Christmas is the time for remembering the incarnation and its significance—the fact that we were rebels, dead in our sin, but God broke into our darkness. God owed us nothing, yet he chose to take on human flesh and to cover our sin by his perfect life and death. In a world full of sorrow, violence, and evil, the baby in the manger brought joy, peace, and hope. That incredible reality, and the fact that through Christ, God is reconciling us to himself shapes every element of how we interact with the world around us, including how we approach cultural engagement.
It isn’t a stretch of the imagination to believe that everyone, at some point, has asked, “Why is the world like this? Why is there so much brokenness? Why so much darkness?” There is reason to grieve the brokenness of the world, but we must not forget that, thanks to the incarnation, the darkness that we see and feel around us has already been broken. As the old Christmas carol reminds us, there is “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!” At the incarnation, a new day has dawned.
The Christmas story does not end in the manger, but at the empty tomb, and because of that we do not speak, act, or live as those who have no hope. Because we are messengers of the hope of the manger, the victory of the cross, and the glory of the empty tomb, the way that we do politics is radically transformed. In him, we are conquerors, not victims of political correctness.
This season often comes with some level of discussion of the “war on Christmas.” While it is true that there is animosity toward Christianity and very real and important battles over religious freedom taking place, we must not forget that the real “war on Christmas” is over. It was won on the cross 2,000 years ago, and we are called to proclaim his triumph over death, destruction, and futility. No political trend can ever take away or lessen the fact that Christ has conquered.
Isaiah says of Christ, “The government shall be upon his shoulders.” It is an amazing and freeing thing that the government rests upon his shoulders, not ours. This shapes the way that we engage in the political realm. If the government did not rest upon his shoulders, any and all of our political engagement would be futile, and we would have no reason not to adopt an approach driven by fear and desire for power. But because the government rests upon his shoulders, we are free to do politics differently. Because Christ is Lord, we do not have to (nor should we) employ sinful political tactics, nor should we feel compelled to embrace those who do. We do not engage and fight hopelessly, which means we do not compromise truth for the sake of political victories. Whatever happens in the world around us, we are proclaimers of Christ’s victory!
Proclaiming that victory is not something that is limited to any one sphere of life. People need to hear the hope of the gospel and the truth that death has been defeated in our families, our workplaces, and our communities, and they need to see that the hope of the gospel transforms lives. The baby in the manger came to heal the brokenness of the world and reconcile us to God, and that’s good news that we cannot keep to ourselves.
C.S. Lewis summed up the incarnation this way: “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.” Because of the incarnation, we do not have to experience eternal death. The Christmas season is an opportunity to reflect, to celebrate, and to share the reason for our hope with the world around us through our words, actions, and attitudes.
