Tag: Christmas

Saint Nicholas: A Legacy of Generosity and Faith

Nicholas was born on March 15, 270, in Patara, Turkey. We know from records that Nicholas lost both of his parents, (Epiphanius and Johanna in some accounts), as a young boy and that he used his inheritance to assist the poor. He devoted his life to his faith and became a monk. We don’t know what business his father was in to have such wealth to leave his son well off and well raised. Catholic.org indicates that he was raised by an uncle. Apparently, however, the family was devoted to their Christian faith because Nicholas knew enough to know that he needed Christ and to devote his life to Christ and to caring to those less privileged than he. He traveled to Egypt and to Israel. He was believed to have been arrested and imprisoned by Diocletian. He was also believed to have been present at the Council of Nicea where some have said that he struck the heretic Arius in the face.

Biography.com relates a story of three young girls who were extremely poor. Their father had no money for their dowries. At this time in history dowries were very important to make good marriages for young women. The family was concerned for their daughters. “Three times, Saint Nicholas secretly went to their house at night and put a bag of money inside. The man used the money so that one of his daughters could marry. On the third visit, the man saw Saint Nicholas and thanked him for his kindness.” There was another time when Nicholas saved three men from being falsely imprisoned and sentenced to death. He is also said to have done many miracles.

The story of Nicholas circulated throughout Europe after his death, which was believed to have happened about December 343. His remains were stolen and taken to Bari, Italy, where his remains have been enshrined in the Basilica of San Nicola.

It was the Dutch who seemed to have loved the story the most and who would take the story and make it famous. The Dutch began to celebrate the feast of Saint Nicholas on December 6th, and the children began putting out wooden shoes the night before. The next morning, they would wake up to small treats in their shoes. It was those Dutch immigrants who would bring these traditions to the New World. They called him Sinterklaas.

Over the decades, Sinterklaas became Santa Claus and the celebration changed from December 6th to be included with the Christmas celebrations on December 25th. He would be transformed from a thin, tall man, to a shorter, rounder man with chubby, rosy cheeks and fluffy white hair after a poem by Clement Clark Moore called “The Night Before Christmas” was written. Then the Coca-Cola Company picked that image up and ran with it and created the image we know today.

Interestingly, the modern city of Demre, Turkey is built near the ruins of the saint’s hometown of ancient Myra and attracts many Russian tourists as St. Nicholas is a very popular Orthodox saint. Restoration of Saint Nicholas’ original church is currently underway, with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2007 permitting Divine Liturgy to be celebrated at the site and contributing 40,000 Turkish lira to the project.

Would Nicholas appreciate what his reputation has become over the past 1755 years? Probably not. He probably would not appreciate that his kind gift giving to impoverished child has upstaged in many ways the truth of the Christ’s birth. Whether Christians were celebrating Christ’s birth in December during his lifetime remains to be seen. The church was still very young and how the church’s calendar of celebrations would be scheduled may not been determined yet. However, one can be certain that there would be on that calendar a time to celebrate the Savior’s birth and no doubt that Nicholas, as a devoted servant, would never have wanted to do anything to upstage that celebration. However, that is exactly what we have allowed to happen. No longer to do we focus solely on the gift of a Savior born of a brave young woman supported by her husband and the long trek made to a far away city under duress, or to the visitors who came to see the baby that night, BUT we cut that off to give his devotee more time and energy than we give to him. Saint Nicholas would be appalled and angry. He might even wish to strike out at us. Who could blame him? As adults it is our job to reel it in. If we call ourselves Christians, then we must put Jesus first and Nicholas second. Put it in perspective. Limit the craziness for HIS sake and yours.

Remembering the Reason for the Season: Finding Jesus in the Old Testament

As a member of a Protestant denomination I did not learn as much about the Old Testament growing up as I did about the New Testament. The focus most often is, of course, about the life and teachings of Jesus because we want to make certain that we understand what we need to know in order to obtain salvation. However, once we have that secured by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then we do need to learn all parts of the Bible.

One of my favorite and memorable learning moments in my life came when I was in college and I attended a presentation by a group young adults from Jews for Jesus. Interestingly enough at the time, I had not found my biological family and I did not know yet that I was Jewish. I wish I had because I probably would have sought the group out so that I could have learned more about their organization so that I could learn more about the Jewish side of me. But that isn’t the purpose of this post.

What was fascinating to me was to hear them point out all the scripture passages in the Old Testament that pointed towards Jesus, even specifically describing how Passover pointed to Jesus. It was amazing how each part of the Passover celebration pointed directly to Jesus. I thought I would share some of the scripture passages from the Old Testament with you and how those passages prophesied Jesus.

  1. The nations will be blessed through Abraham’s lineage.
    • PROPHECY: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3).
    • FULFILLMENT: “And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways” (Acts 3:25-26).
  2. The scepter will come through Judah
    • PROPHECY: “The scepter will not depart from Judah, not the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his” (Genesis 49:10)
    • FULFILLMENT: Judah is part of Jesus’ genealogy. “The son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah” (Luke 3:33)
  3. The virgin will give birth, and he will be called Immanuel (God with us)
    • PROPHECY: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14)
    • FULFILLMENT: “The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35)
  4. The Messiah will end up in Egypt
    • PROPHECY: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1)
    • FULFILLMENT: “So he [Joseph] got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’” (Matthew 2:14-15).
  5. The Christ will be born in Bethlehem
    • PROPHECY: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)
    • FULFILLMENT: “When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written: ‘“But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” (Matthew 2:4-6)
  6. Jesus would become the perfect sacrifice
    • PROPHECY: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—but my ears you have opened—burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:6-8)
    • FULFILLMENT: “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—but my ears you have opened—burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, my God’”
      • “First he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them’—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’ He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:5-10)
  7. Jesus would draw the Gentiles to himself
    • PROPHECY: “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10)
    • FULFILLMENT: “Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. So the Pharisees said to one another, ‘See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!’
      • “Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we would like to see Jesus’” (John 12:18-21)
  8. The Messiah would be preceded by a forerunner
    • PROPHECY: “A voice of one calling: ‘in the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain’” (Isaiah 40:3-4)
    • FULFILLMENT: “John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Make straight the way for the Lord’” (John 1:23).
  9. Jesus would be despised and rejected
    • PROPHECY: “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” (Isaiah 53:3)
    • FULFILLMENT: “All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff” (Luke 4:28-29).

These prophecies take us from prior to his birth all the way to his death showing us that Jesus was the Messiah God promised all along. I believe it is important for us to focus on Jesus at Christmas and less upon Santa Claus. There are those who feel Christmas is more pagan than Christian because of a perceived connection to an ancient Roman festivals known as Saturnalia, celebrated on December 17th, and Sol Invictus, which is celebrated on December 25th. Puritans argued that some Christmas traditions were borrowed from paganism and should be rejected.

However, early Christian theologians like John Chrysostom (386 AD) wrote that Christmas was celebrated on December 25th long before any alleged pagan influences. Traditions of decorating trees, exchanging gifts, and hanging wreaths are more modern and don’t appear to have a direct historical connection to any pagan festivals. These claims of pagan connections seem to come from misinterpretations of historical sources, if not fabrications to suit an intended purpose.

Certainly, there is no direct knowledge of Jesus’ exact birthdate, but that isn’t the point. Do we need to know anyone’s birthday in order to celebrate their birth? No, of course not! There is plenty of evidence for Jesus’ existence. We know from non-Christian sources like Tacitus, a Roman historian circa 56-120 AD who spoke of Jesus in his writings; Pliny the Younger, another Roman historian circa 61-113 AD who wrote about people worshipping Jesus; and Josephus a Jewish historian circa 37-100AD who wrote a book entitled Antiquities of the Jews and included two references to Jesus in said book. Moreover there were early Christian references to Jesus including the Pauline Epistles written by Paul and the Gospels, as wells a scholarly consensus as to the existence of Jesus. If we know he existed, then we obviously ought to celebrate the birthday of the Lord and Savior of the greater majority of the globe, right? Absolutely we should, no matter what time of year we decide to do it.

I hope that you have a wonderfully blessed Christmas and the happiest of New Year’s!

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