The Cost of Christmas

Below is the transcript of the Christmas Eve message I brought at FBCH.

What is the cost of Christmas? That cost varies depending on who you ask. For example, to the US economy, the cost of Christmas is $435 billion dollars, because this is what Americans are expected to put into the economy this Christmas season. For Christmas tree growers, the cost of Christmas is $506 million, because that is what they hope we will have spent on Christmas trees. To the average American, the cost of Christmas is $859 dollars, because this is the amount that the average American will spend on Christmas presents. If we could ask your scale at home, what is the cost of Christmas, it would answer about seven pounds, because this is how much weight the average American will gain. There is even an organization that determines the price of the 12 days of Christmas. The PNC Financial Services Group calculates the total price of all of the items included in that well known song as a means of measuring inflation. This year, you would start with the cost to book various musicians and stage performers like twelve percussionists, eleven pipers, ten lords a’ leaping, and nine female dancers. Then you would add in the minimum wage of eight milking maids (not including the price of the actual cows). Then you would add the actual purchase price of seven swans (pool not included), six geese, five golden rings (carats not specified), four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, 1 partridge and 1 pear tree, you final tab would be $19,507.

But I want to propose to you that the cost of Christmas, the real cost of Christmas, is much, much more. In fact, if you want to know how much Christmas costs, you must go back to the very first Christmas and read from the Word of God.

"In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Luke 2:1-7

If you think Christmas is expensive now, that doesn’t compare to the very first Christmas.

Interestingly enough, the Christmas story in Luke’s gospel begins with an expensive tax. Ceasar Augustus, the ruler of the Roman Empire, issued a decree that a census be taken. Everyone had to return to the city of their heritage. We know from history that this was the first census of its kind ever taken. The purpose was to tax the people in order to fund the expansion of the ever growing Roman Empire.

Swept up in this census were Joseph and Mary, and it could not have come at a worse time. Christmas cost them a long and hard journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the city of Joseph’s ancestors. Mary being with child, it’s not likely that they were able to travel more than ten miles per day, if that. The easiest parts of the journey were hilly and the hardest parts of the journey were mountainous. Being poor, their diet was likely bread and water and their transportation a donkey. The temperatures were likely freezing at night and possibly during the day. Christmas was very costly.

But the cost did not end there. For Mary, Christmas cost her her reputation. There is an interesting scene in the nativity Story in which Mary has a nightmare in which she is being stoned. As an unwed mother, she ran the risk of being rejected by Joseph and stoned religious zealots. No doubt, Mary endured countless judgmental glances. She was the object of scorn and ridicule and gossip.

Joseph paid a dear price that first Christmas. Joseph was forced to abandon whatever plans he had as a carpenter in exchange for life as an exile in Egypt. When he eventually returned, they had not forgotten about the rumors he’d left behind. Joseph was probably shunned by those with whom he did business. Joseph probably lost whatever standing he had within the community. We don’t know for sure, but it is very possible that Joseph lost any access he had to the synagogue. Joseph was insulted. He was looked upon as less than a man, when in reality he was a man’s man. The birth of Jesus represented a black eye that Joseph would wear for the rest of his life.

Of course, Christmas was costly for the baby that was born, Jesus. Could we even put a price upon the throne he left behind or the chorus of angels whose voice could no longer be heard? Could we put a price upon the glory that no longer shone?

If you want to know the cost of Christmas, ask yourself what it would be worth to you for your child to be born in a cold, exposed barn some winter night, surrounded by noisy cattle and the smell of dung and urine. What would it be worth to endure the humiliation of being stuck with an animal stall for the birthplace of your child? Is there even a price that someone could pay for you to agree to your child being born under these conditions?

The cost of Christmas, for Jesus, did not end the day he was born. The cost of Christmas followed him all the days of his life. The Bible tells us that in John 1, Jesus was referred to as the Son of Joseph. We know that Joseph had no part in the conception of Jesus, but this simply shows us that 30 years after Jesus was born, it was still assumed that Joseph was biological father. Three years later, we read in John 8 that the Pharisees, arguing with Jesus said, “WE are not illegitimate children.” You understand the insinuation, don’t you? What they are saying is “YOU ARE.” It was an insult, one that Jesus had heard way too many times before.

Do you understand that Jesus lived his entire earthly life followed by the rumor that he was an illegitimate child? He was mocked for this.

But the real cost of Christmas cannot be calculated until you reach the cross. You see, you cannot separate the birth of Jesus from the death of Jesus.

Never is this more evident that when you look at the name of the city in which Jesus was born. Bethlehem. In the known world at that time, there were three known continents, Europe, Asia and Africa, and God chose Asia. In Asia, there were many countries, but God chose Palestine. In Palestine, there were three regions, Judea, Samaria and Galilee, and God chose Judea. In Judea, there were many towns and villages, but God chose Bethlehem. God chose Bethlehem for two reasons. First, eight and a half centuries prior, God declared through the prophet Micah that Bethlehem would be the city of the Savior’s birth. Micah 5:2 says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." With God, a prophesy is not a guess about what might happen, it is a declaration of what will happen.

But there is another reason why Bethlehem was chosen and the very name reveals it. Did you notice that Micah referred to the town not just as Bethlehem, but as Bethlehem Ephrathah? This is very significant. Bethlehem meant “House of Bread.” You see, the baby who would be born in Bethlehem would one day claim to be the bread of life. Jesus said in John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

But notice the second part of the name. Bethlehem Ephrathah. You see, Ephrathah comes from the Hebrew, meaning wine. This same Jesus would said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” At the last supper he said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”

The bread, Jesus said, is a picture of his flesh which would be nailed to the cross for our sins. Wine represents his blood, which would be poured out. Bethlehem. Ephrathah. Bread. Wine. Body. Blood. God ordained that the very name of the town in which Jesus was born would point us to the cross.

Someone wrote a poem once that goes like this…

There was no room in Bethlehem, for him who left his throne.
To seek the lost at countless cost and make their griefs his own.
But there was room on Calvary, upon the cross of shame.
For Him to die, uplifted high, and bear the sinner’s blame.
There was no room in Bethlehem and in the world today
Men will not give him to live but bid him turn away.
But there is room at Calvary and there he stands to give
Welcome to all who heed his call and look to Him to live.
There was no room in Bethlehem for Christ, the prince of heaven.
Come down to earth in human birth that men might be forgiven.
But there is room at Calvary for sinners to abide.
And all who come may find a home in Jesus crucified.

That is the true cost of Christmas.