The Biblical Case for Seeing Your Family this Christmas
The Story continues and this good
God separates a people for Himself so that they can show the nations what the
He is like. One way this nation, Israel, was to do this was by gathering to
celebrate festivals during the year: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. These sacred, festive gatherings were a
remembrance to Israel and a testimony to the nations of God’s protection and
provision. Though these gatherings were joyous occasions where people saw
family and friends who lived at a distance, they still involved risk and cost.
Yet the God of Scripture required this festive praise from His people for His
glory.
In the New Testament, Christians
find themselves with two families. The first is the family they get from God as
Creator: their natural family. The second is the family of faith (the Church).
As to the second family, Christ and the apostles call us to gather to break
bread, share wine, baptise newcomers, lay hands on one another, and greet each
other with a holy kiss. We do this at our Sunday worship and at holiday times such
as Easter and Christmas.
But Christ gives us instructions
for our natural family too. God, through Moses, gave us the Fifth Commandment
(Honour thy father and thy mother) for a reason: sin inclines us to not honour
them. In Jesus’ day, people found a way to not honour their parents while
appearing moral and altruistic. It was called ‘Corban’. People could give a big
public gift to God and be released from the burden of having to care for their
parents. Hey, we can avoid our obnoxious parents and appear virtuous! Great
deal, eh? But Jesus rebuked them for this. He said ‘You have a fine way of
setting aside the commands of God!’ (Mark 7.9)
Jesus challenged what was seen to
be ethical by bringing people back to God’s commands. He wants to be honoured
in a specific way and He has instructed us how. This is both for His glory and
for our good. God understands what is best for the world in a way that the
world does not. We cannot love our neighbour well if we do not know what they
ultimately need.
The people of God have been
challenged in 2020 and this challenge is more pronounced in light of the
Christmas season. On the one hand, we have secular morality that is based on a
materialist view of humanity. It exalts the physical and temporal over the
emotional, psychological, relational, and spiritual. This is what we’re tempted
to conform to. The Biblical view of humanity, on the other hand, is more
relational and focuses more on what is unseen than what is seen.
Different views result in
different actions. In 2020, we’ve witnessed society pay any and every cost to
preserve temporal, biological life—because, in their view, there’s
nothing after death. As Christians, we are not surprised that such a
short-sighted project has resulted in increased suicides, depression,
loneliness, abuse and divorce. For Christians, we have a different set of
values and therefore we assess risk differently. We are called to live well
more than just to survive. Our ultimate goal is not to reach 95 years, but to
honour and enjoy God in time and eternity.
When my 93-year-old grandmother
asks me if I can bring my children over to her house for Christmas, I do so.
She doesn’t have much time left on Earth, and she wants to spend them receiving
hugs from her great-grandchildren. Who am I to dishonour her? She knows the
risks. It would be dishonouring of me to let her final years on Earth to be in
isolation—if
she is asking to be with her family instead.
How can I claim to ‘love my
neighbour’ in the abstract when I can’t even love my grandmother in the
concrete?
It wasn’t good for man to be
alone in Eden and it’s not good now. Society avoids a possible, physical
sickness at all costs. But, for those who belong to our celebrating, relational
God, there are countervailing considerations to weigh. We count the cost, take
the risk, and honour God by celebrating with both our spiritual and natural
families with moral and spiritual freedom.
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