We shouldn’t just state the fact of Jesus being the reason for the saying—that we remember his birth at Christmas.
We need to fill this out—otherwise it just becomes a meaningless slogan in a hopeless culture war.
We need to look deeper.
- Why did God come to earth for our salvation?
- What was God hoping to reveal to humanity?
- What was God’s agenda for dwelling among us?
The reason for the season is FAMILY, and God came to show us this.
Here are the 3 reasons why just saying Jesus is the reason for Christmas isn’t saying nearly enough:
- God’s Affection for us
- God’s Attunement to us
- God’s Action on our behalf
Family is the Reason for the Season
As a pastor and a professor, I see a lot of joy and a lot of pain in families. People long to be part of a healthy, happy, and connected family. People long for a place to belong, for a place to be safe. A place to be seen, known, and loved.
For some of us, Christmas is when we get to celebrate our families.
For others of us, Christmas smacks us in the face with the pain that we don’t have family.
We gather with our families. We avoid and ignore our families. Or we probably do some of both.
God as Father of a Family through Christmas
Into the joy and pain of family—and really, all the joy and pain of life—in Christmas God comes as a good Father.
These are the three reasons why saying “Jesus Is the Reason for the Season” isn’t saying enough
1) As a good parent, God has great AFFECTION for us
We have all heard it, and yet it is foundational: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
God’s love for us is the affection of a good parent. This is seen all over the Old Testament where God talks about Israel as his blessed child, firstborn son (Ex. 4:22; Jer. 31:20; Hos. 11).
Moses reminds Israel that “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deut. 7:7-8).
Affection through the Face
Affection—or what neuroscientists call attachment—is achieved with children through appropriate attention.
This is particularly achieved through the eyes and face, as little babies are constantly looking for the face of their caregiver.
Isn’t it amazing that God blesses Israel by saying (twice!) that his face will “shine” upon them, and his face will “turn toward” them (Num. 6:23-27).
God’s face—the face of a good father—reveals God’s love & affection for us (for more listen to our episode on “What is Joy? And the Face of God” [with transcript]).
And so, when we hear that “God so loved the world” we must remember this is the affection of a good father who is turning his face toward us.
2) As a good parent, God Attunes to us
God’s affection for us means that God attunes to us emotionally, spiritually, and even physically.
In music, to attune is to bring into harmony, to resonate together. In relationships, attunement is how we foster authentic relationships by connecting our minds and emotions with another person.
As Dr. Dan Siegel says, “When we attune with others we allow our own internal state to shift, to come to resonate with the inner world of another.”
When a baby cries, the attuned parent will figure out what is wrong. Is the baby hungry, tired, needing to be changed? And adults to the same thing for each other when we practice empathy and active listening—when we connect with the joys and sorrows of another person.
And God is always attuned to us.
When God’s child—Israel—was enslaved, God’s says “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows” (Ex. 3:7).
And later the prophet Isaiah said, “In all their [Israel’s] affliction he [God] was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; In his love and in his pity he redeemed them; And he bore them and carried them all the days of old” (Is. 63:9).
So too, at Christmas—in the Incarnation— God “takes on flesh and dwells among us” (John 1:14). This is the ultimate act of attunement!
God becomes like us, feeling what we feel, experiencing what we experience, suffering what we suffer (Heb 2:10-18).
3) As a good parent, God Acts on our behalf
Because of God’s great affection for us, and because of God’s attainment with us, God acts for us.
The one God sends in his love—the Son—is the one who acts to save us. As Jesus says of himself, quoting Isaiah 61:1-2: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
God acts to bring us into a new family
And not just to save us, but to bring us into family. Indeed, salvation is entering a new family.
“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.” (Gal. 3:26)
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12-13)
Reason for the Christmas
So, Jesus is the reason for the season.
But we need to say more. We need to remember that God—like a good parent—has affection for us, is attuned to us, and acts on our behalf, and is welcoming us into a new family.