When does Christmas begin? We have good friends whose son believes that Christmas can only begin if there is snow on the ground. Every night in December, he prays for snow. We know others who believe that Christmas can only begin once the tree is up and decorated. And I know of parents who would argue that Christmas cannot begin until both parents are up and have a cup of coffee in their hand.
When does Christmas begin? I would like to argue that Christmas actually begins with a longing, a hunger for something so big that it sets you on a journey to find it. Sometimes that longing is love.
Sometimes it is peace. Sometimes it is a hunger for meaning and significance. And sometimes it’s a craving for joy. These are the longings of Christmas, desires buried deep in our hearts that call us to discover what life is all about and how we can find unmitigated joy in the midst of it. Christmas begins with these deep existential longings that set us on a journey to find what makes life worth living. We all long for something that breathes eternity into our souls and touches our being with transcendence. What do you long for? What is the cry of your heart?
Over two thousand years ago, a small band of Persian astrologers travelled over 400 miles across rough terrain to a backwater little village called Bethlehem. It must have taken them weeks and cost a small fortune. Why would they do such a thing? They weren’t Jewish. They weren’t Bible scholars. And they weren’t sent there by some government official. No, they came because they longed to see the one who was born king of the Jews whose birth was proclaimed by a star. But more than anything else, they longed to worship. They even said so. When they arrived in Jerusalem, they asked (Mt. 2:2): “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” And then, they added: “We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
And so when they saw the star, this longing in their heart to worship compelled them to start on a journey that brought them all the way from Babylon to Bethlehem. They longed to see the Christ-child themselves, for they knew once they saw him, life would never be the same again. And when they saw the star over the tiny village of Bethlehem, they were overcome with joy. See, longings always lead us on a journey of discovery. Anticipation and hope and excitement walk with us each step of the way. But joy is what we find when our hearts discover that for what they are looking. The Magi longed to see and worship the Messiah. And when they bowed before the Christ child and gave him gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh, their hearts were filled to overflowing. They had found what they had hoped for. Their longings led them to Christ.
I think that is always the way it is. God speaks into our hearts with certain longings, longings that cannot be fully satisfied here on earth. And God does this not so that we will continually be yearning for what is not there, but so that we will begin a journey and search for him, the only one who can truly satisfy our deepest longings. God gives us passions, questions and longings so that we will seek after him. And he invites us to pursue them wholeheartedly because he knows that an honest search will always lead to Christmas, to discovering what life is all about, to discovering joy and to discovering Jesus.
Now of course, we can thwart that journey. The point of this account in Matthew is that these pagan astrologers came searching for someone who would make their lives meaningful, but the people in Jerusalem, who knew the truth, who had the Scriptures, who understood much more and much better about the coming of the Messiah than the Magi did, chose to stay put. They denied their longings. They refused to search. And they refused to travel ten miles to see if this child was the promised Messiah. And Herod had longings. He longed for power, for status, and for people to worship him. And when the Magi told him they had come to worship the newborn king, Herod longed only to protect what was his: his power, his riches and his reign. Those who long for such things, find that Christmas never comes.
But the Magi longed to worship, and they embarked on a journey to see for themselves this one born King of the Jews. And when they found the child, they were overjoyed. And as they gave themselves over to worship, they discovered that all their hopes and dreams and deepest longings were met in Christ. They came to worship. They left with life. CS Lewis said it best: “Seek Christ and you will find him, and with him everything else thrown in besides.”
But don’t miss the true message of Christmas in this story. While the Magi went all the way to Bethlehem to seek the Christ, the reality was that throughout their whole journey, it was God who was seeking them. It was God who implanted these longings. It was God who brought the star. It was God who called them into astrology. We think we are searching for God. The Christmas story tells us that we’ve got it all backwards. God has come to earth to seek us because God wants to bless us with a relationship with him, a relationship of love, peace and joy.
Here’s what I believe. Christmas begins with our innermost longings calling out to be satisfied and ends in irrepressible joy because Christmas is about God giving us the gift of himself. Augustine said it this way in his prayer to God: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” And when that happens, Christmas has definitely begun.
