Christmas Eve and Good Friday

There is a clear, unmistakable, and critical link between Christmas and Good Friday (Christ’s death).

Celebrate Christmas without meditating on the cross, and you will have a Christmas devoid of meaning — all pretty paper, bows, lights, and tinsel, without any real treasure and joy.  Christmas without the cross is a meal without the food, a package without a present, a celebration without guests.  It is to strip the event of its real significance.

I delight in Christmas.  But only as a reminder of the advent of the God-Man who arrived to take away my sin.

And I am grateful for hymns that do not sentimentalize the advent, but place the advent in relation to the cross.  As we sing Christmas hymns, we also are very often singing Easter truth — and that’s good for our hearts.  A few examples:

• O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel
• Come, Thou long-expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free; from our sins and fears release us
• Born Thy people to deliver…by Thine all-sufficient merit, raise us to Thy glorious throne
• Thou camest, O Lord, with the living word that should set Thy people free, but with mocking scorn and with crown of thorn, they bore Thee to Calvary
• Hail the heaven-born Prince of peace…mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die; born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth
• Then let us all with one accord sings praises to our heavenly Lord, that hath made heaven and earth of naught, and with His blood mankind hath bought
• I wonder as I wander out under the sky, how Jesus the Savior did come for to die for poor ornery people like you and like I…
• Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared and the soul felt its worth…
• Good Christian men, rejoice with heart and soul and voice; now ye need not fear the grave:  Peace!  Peace!  Jesus Christ was born to save!
• Who is He in yonder stall, at whose feet the shepherds fall?…Lo!  at midnight, who is He prays in dark Gethsemane?  Who is He on yonder tree — dies in grief and agony?  Who is He that comes from the grave, comes to heal and to save?…’Tis the Lord!  O wondrous story!

So as you go to worship tonight or this weekend, be joyful again for the advent of Christ — and specifically because His advent provided your redemption.