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The Cost of Christmas
The Cost of Christmas
Pastor David Schroeder
Christmas caught the shepherds and everyone else by surprise. Herod surely wasn’t ready for it, nor was the innkeeper in Bethlehem. But you can be sure that no politicians or business owners will be caught by surprise this year! No Siree – all eyes are on the commercial / consumer potential to help pull America out of its economic deep freeze. Isn’t that what Christmas is for, after all? ‘Tis the season to spend freely, fa-la-la-la-la, la, la, la, la.
So, how much will Christmas cost you this year? Are Christians ready to be good Americans and splurge for the good of the economy? Christmas is always expensive. But no matter how much we spend, it won’t cost more than the first Christmas.
Here’s what Christmas cost:
• It cost a young Jewish man named Joseph the dignity of normal fatherhood, including having to live in exile in Egypt for a time.
• It cost a young Jewish woman named Mary her reputation, as people assumed she had conceived a child out of wedlock.
• It cost a group of shepherds a frightful visitation by angelic beings, who roused them from their complacency to become witnesses and heralds of a child’s birth.
• It cost some astrologers from the East a long journey, expensive gifts, and quite likely, changed lives.
• It cost God the Father the separation from His only beloved Son whom He sent to earth to deliver humans from their sins.
• It cost Jesus Christ a life of sacrificial service and a violent, painful death on a Roman cross to pay for the sins of His assassins and all humanity.
• It cost the apostles and other early Christians much persecution and martyrdom.
• It costs modern missionaries a great amount of privation and sacrifice as they take the gospel to other cultures.
• It costs all true believers their right to independence and self-indulgence.
So, is Christmas too expensive?
• Way too expensive if it is only a western holiday to end the year upbeat.
• Too expensive if all it means is millions of dollars spent for exchanging gifts.
• Way too expensive if the story is about a jolly old white-bearded figure dressed in red, riding
from the North Pole on a sleigh of reindeer to deliver presents to good little girls and boys.
