“And Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly, I say to you, only with
difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell
you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’” Matthew 19:23-24
“Jesus said to him, ‘If you would be perfect, go, sell what you
possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and
come, follow me.’” Matthew 19: 21
Recently, Pope Francis released his first apostolic exhortation, in which he decries capitalism.
“In this context, some people continue to defend
trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a
free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice
and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been
confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the
goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings
of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still
waiting.”
Jesus wasn’t very frugal anyway, always giving things away to help
the poor and whatnot, so he wouldn’t have had money saved up to buy
presents. But we know he liked to party, so he could perform some cool
magic tricks for you at dinner.
6) Christmas trees.
Christmas trees are a remnant of Germanic pagan traditions that
couldn’t be further removed from the Christian faith. But even more
importantly, Jesus has a rocky history with trees. Remember his
encounter with the fig tree? It didn’t go so well. Jesus was hungry, the
fig tree hadn’t produced fruit yet because it wasn’t the season for it,
so he cursed the tree and it withered. There’s a reason he was a
carpenter and not a lumberjack. Case closed.
5) It’s not even his brfday!
Sure the sentiment is nice, but December 25
th wasn’t the
day Jesus was born. The date was chosen largely to align with a variety
of pre-existing winter festivals (see below). A few years ago
astronomers calculated that Jesus might have actually been
born in June.
4) The Bible’s not big on birthdays.
Even
IF December 25
th was Jesus’ birthday, he still
wouldn’t celebrate it. In the few instances where birthdays are
described in the Bible, they usually lead to murder. For example,
Matthew 14: 6-10 talks about King Herod’s birthday, in which Herodias’
daughter dances for Herod, which is so pleasing to him, he declares he
will give her anything she wants. And she asks for John the Baptist’s
head on a platter. For those who aren’t aware, John the Baptist was a
good, God-fearing man, who baptized Jesus! But ask and ye shall receive,
so Herod acquiesced to her request. Birthdays were also viewed as
having pagan origins because someone or something was being idolized and
worshipped, which is why Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate birthdays.
3) Paganism.
If there’s one thing God doesn’t like, it’s worshipping false idols.
Yet many of our modern Christmas traditions have pagan origins that
would make our Lord and Savior see red. Aside from the Christmas trees,
celebrating Christmas on December 25
th stems from Roman pagan
traditions. Roman pagans introduced the holiday Saturnalia, in which a
week-long period of drunken lawlessness ensued between December 17-25,
culminating in a human sacrifice. In the 4
th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival, hoping to refine the practices and convert the pagan masses.
2) Santa is the devil.
I mean his name is an anagram for Satan and he dresses all in red.
Hmmmm. Santa’s origin was born from Saint Nicholas, who was the Bishop
of Myra. He was idolized and eventually a tradition spread to
commemorate his death on December 6
th by filling children’s shoes with candy. Over time, he took on attributes of the Germanic god Wotan (or Odin for the
Thor
fans), depicted as a white-bearded old man who rides across the sky to
lead the Wild Hunt and gives small presents to children. With the help
of novelist Washington Irving and Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast, the
story and image of Santa Claus were complete. All that was left was mass
commercialization, which the Coca Cola Corporation kindly stepped in,
creating a coke-drinking Santa in 1931 that wore a bright red
fur-trimmed suit. Hence Santa was born — part saint, part pagan god, and
all commercial idol.
1) Jesus was a Jew.
Even Reform and irreligious Jews face the “
December dilemma”
of trying to reconcile their religion and traditions with the more
dominant Christmas-celebrating culture they’re a part of. Sure, many
Jews do celebrate Christmas along with Hanukkah, but we’re guessing
Christ, who was a fairly religious guy by all accounts, would have
abstained.
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