Christmas in Context

Multi-religious Sri Lanka celebrates once again the great historical festival of Christmas commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity. It has become over the centuries an international pageant of joy and glitter with people across the globe keeping it in an amazing cultural diversity and social traditions. It must be remembered that Christmas is a profoundly religious celebration since according to Christian belief, it is a commemoration of the Birth of Christ who is the full revelation of God and the one and only historical incarnation of divinity and the Redeemer of the human race.  

The message and meaning of Christmas is simple. It is God’s love manifested in a truly human being identified as Jesus of Nazareth, the eternal Galilean. Christian faith sees in his face, the countenance of God himself and in his words and actions the intervention of the divinity. In the life-events of Jesus, namely his birth, preaching, miracles, suffering, death and Resurrection, God had revealed his immense and immeasurable kindness and compassion to human beings. To bring back the lost honor and dignity to human beings, he himself became a human being and lived deeply profound human experiences including suffering and death. According to a poet, Christ is God’s love written in human language. 

According to spiritual writers, his was the greatest life ever lived and the greatest story ever told. He lived and worked as an itinerant preacher, going about doing good, declaring the advent of the Kingdom of God, cleaning up false practices of religion, bringing in a religion of the heart, healing the sick, driving out evil spirits and even resurrecting the dead. He declared himself a king before the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate but made it clear to him and to the people that his kingdom was not of this world. He had come for this purpose to bear witness to the Truth and that those who are of the Truth hear his voice and hearken to his call. The Roman governor for all his intelligence and power, did not seem to know what is the Truth.   

The message and meaning of Christmas is simple. It is God’s love manifested in a truly human being identified as Jesus of Nazareth, the eternal Galilean