Don’t Pack Away Your Faith: Sharing Jesus After Christmas
After months of Christmas songs being played in shops and our homes being decorated, we no longer see the stockings hung by the chimney with care. The decorations are down, nativity sets are packed away, and Christmas trees are no longer dropping debris in our living rooms. Christmas is over for another year; however, the message continues.
The build-up to Christmas is often a busy season of evangelism for Christians and churches. Our focus turns to a few weeks of the year when there is great openness among people to hear the wonderful news: “Today in the city of David a Saviour was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11). But then, as Christmas concludes, sadly, our evangelistic zeal seems to get packed away with the rest of the decorations. We’ll bring it out again next year and once more boldly declare that Jesus is the reason for the season.
But this shouldn’t be the case, and it certainly is not the example we see in Luke’s Gospel. No doubt many of us read the narrative of the incarnation from Luke 2:1–18 in December, yet I want to suggest there is a verse in that historical account that should be applied in January—and indeed throughout the year.
In Luke 2, we read of the shepherds, who were the first to hear the good news. Upon hearing the proclamation from the angel, they rushed from the fields to Bethlehem. They left their sheep and went to find the great Shepherd of the sheep (Hebrews 13:20), the Lord Jesus. Once they found Him, they could not contain themselves; they began to make known the wonderful message that had been shared with them (Luke 2:17–18).
What we have here is a picture of how we should continue after celebrating the birth of Christ. As Christmas concludes, we should switch into shepherd mode and begin to tell everyone, not just that Jesus has been born, but of all that Christ came to teach and do.
I noticed on Boxing Day the news reports of outrage that shops were starting to sell Easter eggs. People were aghast that Christmas seems to lead straight into Easter. While money may drive the decisions of the supermarkets, I personally think this is how it should be. We should consider the child who was born, but not leave Him in a manger on Christmas Day. Instead, we should, like the shepherds, tell everyone what Christ came to do. We must point forward to Easter and continue to share the gospel.
As a new year commences, let us carry over the same evangelistic zeal we had for a few weeks in December. Look for opportunities to speak of Christ and to tell the lost the wonderful news of the sinless Saviour who came into this world to die in the place of sinners. Share our need for Jesus, then point to Christ—the One who went from cradle to cross and then to an empty tomb.
The shepherds did not go quietly back into the field after that first Christmas, and neither should we go quietly back to our daily lives. There is still “Joy to the World” to proclaim; let us daily speak of the Saviour who has been born for us and who ultimately would die and rise again for us too.
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