by Rodger Broome

Created on: June 06, 2008

Is the original meaning of any symbol necessarily meaningful in different times and for different people? Beginning with the very existence of gestures and language, symbols have evolved over time to take on expanded meanings or shifted entirely to new ones. It is important to not get style confused with substance, when it comes to theological positions. If it is possible for different symbols to stand for the same thing, then is it not also possible for the same symbol to have different theological content as well.

Any use of a symbol can be merely a reification of some abstract concept. Please allow me to digress a bit. The symbol of the Christian Cross has had many variations in different cultures. However, it is known as a cross by its intersecting members. Any member of the Watchtower's Jehovah's Witnesses sect will present an argument that suggests that Jesus of Nazareth was hung on a post, not an intersecting cross. In fact, they "translate" the Greek word typically translated as "cross" as "torture stake". Why? Because this becomes the foot-in-the-door of doubt on the religious traditions and theology of Catholicism, and by transitive association, Protestantism as well. But what is the symbol of the cross to the Christian? It is the sign of their sin-debt paid in full. It is the sign of atonement and redemption. Perhaps this author's position is too parochial for some readers. But I make a pragmatic appeal to the readers' sensibilities in suggesting the a symbol means only what does to people in their own particular situated context. To a Jehovah's Witness, a cross is a symbol of heresy. To a Christian, a cross is a symbol of eternal life.

So the Christmas tree has become for many Christians a reminder of the Cross of their Christ. Its evergreen color represents eternal life and its lights (or candles in times past) represented the Good News or the Gospel which offers the light to lighten one's way. Jesus said, "I am the Light of the World..." (John 8:12). The concept of the tree itself is a reference to the cross on which Jesus died. Therefore, the tree represents the cross, on which the greenness represents eternal life, which is lit by the Light of the Gospel, for all who would receive this free and salutary gift of redemption.

In times preceding Christianity's adoption of the tree, its lights, and ornaments, it may have symbolized other things; perhaps other deities. Perhaps for some today, the original or pre-Christian meanings are embraced by them and those with whom they fellowship. It does not negate the Christian meanings or their useful instruction and pronouncement of the Gospel to those who would come to believe. "For the message [meaning] of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" [my addition] (I Col. 1:18).

Is the Christmas tree a pagan or a Christian symbol? Only you can say.

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