A Contextualized Christmas

The time for Christmas music has finally come. Yes, I'm one of those people who believes the tree should not go up and the smooth tones of Bing Crosby should not be heard until the holiday that has become just the last hurdle to Christmas is over. Well, whether you agree with me or not, it's time for some Christmas music.

Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God: The True Tale of the Coming of Christ is far and away my favorite Christmas album, and was one of the first that I have listened to this year. Besides the stunning talent evident in the album, what makes Behold the Lamb shine is the way that it tells the story of the coming of Jesus Christ.

You see, too often we function like the heretic Marcion did when it comes to the coming of Christ. He held that the Old Testament of the Bible was incompatible with the New Testament writings, and so he rejected the old in favor of the new and around 144 AD, posited that there must be two gods, the Yahweh of the Old Testament and the Jesus of the New Testament. Now, modern Christians today don't just toss out the Old Testament in favor of the new, never reading it or consulting it. But too often when someone asks "where's the important stuff in the Bible?" we point right past the Law and the Prophets (maybe pausing to stop at Psalms, Proverbs and some of the neat stories) and directly to the New Testament.

But the reality is that the Bible is one big story of God's redemptive history, the redeeming of his people. The story of God's working among his people does not begin in Matthew, but even Matthew points back to what has come before in his genealogy, reminding us that born of Abraham, from the line of David, came the one who would take upon himself the sins of this world. When the Israelites called for deliverance from the slavery and bondage they were enduring in Egypt, their waiting for a deliverer is ultimately fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ. The history of the kings of Israel beginning with Saul and then David is not just history, but a pointing forward to the coming of the King of Kings, the one who will rule and reign forever. The passover ritual, the sacrifice of an unblemished animal for sin and the callings forth of the many prophets like Isaiah all point forward to with great anticipation the coming of Jesus Christ.

Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb reminds us of the scriptural reality that Christmas did not start in Matthew, but God's plan to provide a way for the sins of the world to be forgiven began long ago, as he gathered together his people through Abraham. The King that we have, the King that has come, was anticipated with deep longing, pleading and prayer for many generations. The words of Simeon from Luke 2 should move us as we recognize the reality that we have something that many waited for a very long time to have:

²⁵ Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. ²⁶And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. ²⁷And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, ²⁸he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

²⁹ "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word;
³⁰ for my eyes have seen your salvation
³¹ that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel."

Behold the lamb of God, who takes away our sin...