Familiarity with Christmas
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a needling question.
You know, another Christmas is almost upon us, and I am wondering; do you feel like, well, like you’ve done this before? Like you know what it’s all about. You’ve got the lay of the land, and you pretty much know the Christmas story inside and out. I mean you grew up knowing it. You played with your nativity set every year, you know all the words to the main Christmas carols, and you can almost say word-for-word Linus’ recitation of Luke Chapter 2 on the Charlie Brown Christmas specials. When it comes to Christmas, you’ve got this. You kind of know all about it. You know all about Jesus and His story of getting born.
Well, if I’m sort of describing the way you feel about this season, listen to this quote by J.C. Ryle. He says:
“Familiarity with sacred things has an awful tendency to make men despise these things.”
And it’s true. Stephen Witmer, a professor at Gordon Conwell seminary says that:
“It is possible to become so familiar with Jesus that we know Him as a Sunday school answer rather than as a mind-blowingly great, heart-meltingly beautiful Lord, who makes His claim upon our lives, to whom we owe everything, who alone gives us lasting joy, and who deserves all our worship. Familiarity with Jesus may lead us to believe that we have Him figured out. Simply put, perhaps we’re a little bored of Him.”
If this is true of any of us, it’s a sure sign we don’t know Christ nearly enough, because knowing Jesus is like knowing Mount Everest. For those who know it, who have climbed it, Mount Everest increasingly thrills, increasingly confounds, delights, eludes, and exhilarates them. If people are bored of Mount Everest, it’s because they’re learning facts about it in their living room, not climbing it. Stephen Witmer says that familiarity need not breed contempt. Instead, it can breed faith. Look at the four half-brothers of Jesus. Two of the four—Jude and James—wrote New Testament letters, and both men knew Jesus intimately as a brother for many years. But I don’t think their familiarity with their half-brother, Jesus, bred contempt. After all, Jude begins his letter: “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ.” And James begins his epistle: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Familiarity doesn’t need to breed contempt; familiarity will lead to faith when we continue to seek, continue to pursue, continue to long for, and deeply desire to know our Savior, like climbing Mount Everest. It’s why in Ephesians Chapter 1, Paul keeps asking that God will give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that we might know Christ better. Then, 2 Peter 3:18 commands us to “grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus.” The more we know, the more we will see. And the more we see, the more we will worship. The more we worship, the more we will want to know. It’s a little like climbing Mount Everest.
Friend, you couldn’t give yourself a better Christmas gift this year than to become familiar—that is really familiar—desire to know the Christ of Christmas more and more. Know Christ better. Grow in the knowledge of Jesus, and purpose to know Him better in 2018. If we at Joni and Friends can pray for you in this way, please let me know today on our radio page at joniandfriends.org. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where there’s plenty of room for you to share your prayer request to know Christ better. Our Joni and Friends staff meets every morning to pray for friends like you. And while you are on joniandfriends.org/radio, don’t forget to ask for your free gift, a beautiful little foldout of my Christmas art to share with friends. So, please let’s see you later at joniandfriends.org/radio.
© Joni and Friends
