THIS MAN'S BIRTHDAY

The heavyweights call a meeting. Things are getting out of hand and they, by all that's good and decent they say, are determined to do something.

We have the minutes of their hurry-up meeting and the pages throb with anger and frustration. From this record we learn why they're angry: "The chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him . . .  So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. . . [they] said to one another, 'You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.' ”

EPIC FAIL

The men at the meeting are the power hitters in Israel's capital and they're on the march against Jesus of Nazareth, They hate Him so much, they won't sully their lips with His name, but, instead, call Him, "this man." Their plot is to kill Him. Although they spoke in hyperbole ("the whole world has gone after Him") what they so desperately tried to prevent never became a reality. They wanted to erase the name they refused to say, "this man's" name, from history, just as their spiritual descendants wish to do today. But, if there ever was an epic fail, this is it.

How many men at that nefarious meeting can you name? Whose name among them lives on? Do we celebrate the birthday of even one of them? No, not one.

We're not saying that the whole world follows Him as in discipleship, but just look at the facts. In celebration of "this man's" birth, we shut down our federal government, our schools, most of our stores, our doctors' offices, all our post offices, and all our banks. We close our state offices, state courts, city, and county offices. 

EVERYBODY SING!

9 out of 10 of us celebrate Christmas; the very word carries His name. The observance of "this man's" birth includes 81% of non-Christians, 87% of people with no religion, Buddhists (76%) and Hindus (73%). Roughly a third of U.S. Jews (32%) – many of whom have non-Jewish spouses – said that they had a Christmas tree in their homes during the most recent holiday season.

It gets more interesting: far from erasing His name from history, more than 7-in-10 (73%) say that Jesus was born to a virgin and 81% believe He was laid in a manger. And similar shares say that wise men, guided by a star, brought Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (75%) and that an angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus (74%). Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults (65%) believe that all four of these things actually happened. (From the Pew Research Center). Those high percentages know more than His name; they know the details of His birth and early years.

LOOK AT THE CITIES AND TOWNS

Communities, large and small, have Christmas parades, Christmas decorations, Christmas pageants, and Christmas festivals, while families gather, feast together, and gain weight together. People of all ages, complete strangers, gather together, wish each other, "Merry Christmas, and sing special songs called carols about His birth, the tunes and lyrics they learned as children. Poinsettias abound around towns. Choirs sing; orchestras orchestrate; bands play. Stores pipe in music for the season.

My alma mater, Texas Tech University, strings 25,000 red, white, and orange lights on 13 buildings of its sprawling campus. Over 20,000 gather from both the school and the city. It's dramatic. The event starts with the Texas Tech University Combined Choirs performing selections of classic holiday songs. At an appointed time, with the thousands in high anticipation, someone throws the switch, and the Carol of Lights is born anew, a tradition since 1959. 

WANT TO TALK MONEY?

Let's talk happy cabbage: Americans will jam the malls, the stores, and the grocery stores, all for the birth of this man. Parking lots will choke with stalled traffic. Impatient drivers will jam Interstates to get there. Stores will open early and keep their lights on until late. Post offices, the UPS, Fed-Ex will hire extra workers. The average American will spend $830 on gifts this year in observance of this man's birthday, totaling more than $465 billion. Wow! 

AND IT'S NOT ONLY US

More than 160 countries celebrate this man's birth. In England, royalty sets the tone. On December 25, 1932, King George V spoke on the radio to a national audience from a small office at Sandringham. This marked the beginning of a tradition which, to many, has become an integral part of the yuletide festivities - the Christmas Broadcast.
 
Since that time, a Christmas Day message has been delivered by the monarch to the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth almost every year.

THE LAND OF LUTHER

In Germany, where the Christmas tree began, they decorate their trees on Christmas Eve, prior to the evening feast. The father usually keeps the children in a separate room while the mother brings out the Christmas tree from a hidden place and decorates it with apples, candy, nuts, cookies, cars, trains, angels, tinsel, family treasures and candles or lights.

The Germans put the gifts under the tree, while nearby, beautiful plates are laid for each family member and filled with fruits, nuts, marzipan, chocolate and biscuits. The decorations finished, a bell is rung as a signal for the children to enter the room. The family reads Luke 2  during this time and they sing carols together. Often, they light sparklers.

REMEMBER THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH?

Although they choose a different day, going by a different calendar, an Ethiopian Christmas typically begins with a day of fasting, followed by church services and a feast that includes stew, vegetables and sourdough bread. Though most friends and families do not exchange gifts, communities gather to play games and sports, and enjoy the festivities together before returning to work.

OTHERS

In France, Japan, and India, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and in the Ukraine, there will be Christmas celebrations. Tourists will fill Bethlehem where people display Nativity scenes and Christians mark their doors with crosses. (Even in their own country, the heavy hitters at that meeting failed to obliterate His name.)

We could go on, but you get the idea.

Today, we continue to see various attempts to erase His name, this time via political correctness and "inclusion." What does all this tell us? It tells us that that meeting long ago failed miserably. It tells us something more than that--it speaks of the impact this Man continues to have on the world.