by Francis Harris

Created on: October 25, 2010

The true meaning of Christmas is tied up with Christendom - that period of history since about the 4th century - where Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire. During Christendom Christmas as we know it - a celebration of the birth of Jesus - was created. The Roman officials actually used an old pagan mid-winter festival and gave it a new "Christian" religious meaning. Before then there was no Christmas!

Of course there were Christians before Christendom. They existed for almost three hundred years being sporadically persecuted by the Roman rulers. They often existed in small pockets within a household, shared daily life as well as weekly reading of Scripture and a fellowship meal in special remembrance of the last meal Jesus shared with His disciples before He died.

For the early Christians the Resurrection of Jesus was more on their mind than his birth! This astounding reality was witnessed first hand by so many people. Women who had seen Jesus laid to rest in a tomb were terrified to find him walking three days later. And all that Jesus had spoken about concerning forgiveness and taking away the sin of the world through his death taking away our sin started to make sense.

Then when Christendom arrived Christianity changed. The life-changing truth of Christianity - the forgiveness of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus - was dulled. Some how state control of Christianity took the cutting edge off the believers. Faith became identical to good citizenship and all the trimmings of church buildings, vestments, ceremonies and occasions like Christmas were born.

In Christendom Christmas took off as a big party. It got more attention than Easter. We started to see Christmas trees and other traditions arising, including Saint Nicholas himself - the original Santa Claus giving presents to children - taking hold and becoming part of Western culture until we could hardly tell what is "Christian" and what is just our "Christendom" culture.

Now in the 21st century it is hardly surprising that the  influences of Christendom are fading. We are becoming aware that so much of "Christendom" was just cultural and had lost the guts of Christianity right back at the start as the state invaded the church. We are almost at the point that we can ask what were those Roman officials doing when they captured a pagan festival and called it Christmas?

We are almost at the point that we can ask why were we all being led to focus on the birth - in Christmas - and not the astounding resurrection? Did Jesus really want his disciples to sit around thinking of him as a little baby and celebrate his birth? No. He asked them to remember his last supper and the hours before he died. He asked them to celebrate a meal in remembrance of Him as a man about to die and rise again. Wow. We got it all wrong.

We are probably not yet fully aware of just how wrong we go it. We are still asking questions about the surrounding culture and the way it seems to be hi-jacking our "true meanings" that we have created about Christmas. Whether we worry about Santa detracting from the birth of Jesus; or the Christmas tree being pagan, or the greed and commercialism being against all Jesus taught. We find so many things to complain about in the "cultural invasion" that we are on the verge of spotting.

Very soon we will see clearly that the cultural invasion happened right back at the start of Christendom when the pagan Roman state declared Christianity was its religion. That first "Christendom" cultural Christmas began the slow but sure erosion of the "true meaning" that Jesus wanted His disciples to know - the true meaning had more to do with His death and resurrection than his birth.

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