What is Christmas Eve About?
I can remember as a child, each Christmas Eve, waiting for Santa to arrive. I would put cookies out on a plate, a glass of milk, and a note, just in case Santa didn’t know that the snack was for him. As I grew older (but not too old to stop believing in Santa), I would stay up late, excited about my hopes in seeing him! Then I would wake up learning that I’d missed him. Yes, for me (and other children), Christmas Eve was about waiting.
What Was Ancient Israel Waiting For?
Through Moses, and also after the Israelites had returned from Babylon, God promised to send them a Messiah. All throughout the Israelites’ history, the only people known as Messiahs were Priests, Kings, and Prophets (Jesus was all 3!) But God never gave them much of an idea as to when, just that He was coming soon. So the Israelites, by then known as Jews, kept watch. For 400 years, people waited, and waited, and waited. A few times, people would give off the image of a Messiah raised up, getting the people all excited, only to become disappointed. Imagine 400 years of hearing “Ahhhhh? ….awwww…. Ahhhhh? ….awwww…”. Hundreds of thousands of people waiting for God’s Messiah, only to be continuously disappointed when they learned that the person in whom they’d put their trust, wasn’t the Messiah at all. But you see, they were waiting for a human, and humans continued to fail them. They were looking for a Messiah from God and expected him to be human. They weren’t too far off, but God wasn’t talking about sending a simple human, He was talking about something so much more.
What Are We Waiting For?
Today, we’re in a similar position as the Israelites of the time. Only for us, it’s not when the long awaited Messiah will come the first time; now, we’re waiting for Jesus to return–to come a SECOND time. So like the Israelites, we are waiting for the promised coming of God’s Messiah, we don’t know when He’s coming back (like a thief in the night), though we have been commanded to “Watch”, while at the same time, given landmarks to watch for, and even when we do, we remember that Jesus said they’re simply pangs that have to happen before He can return. So in a sense, we’re in the same position as the Jews of Jesus’ time.
Wait…same? Are we really in the same position as the early Jews? Have we not been commanded to do more than simply wait for His arrival? Well, let’s look at the facts:
The Jews then were called to:
- Be a nation of God’s holy priests
- Testify of God’s history and presence among them
- Wait and keep watch for the Messiah’s first arrival.
Christians Today are called to:
- Be a nation of God’s holy priests
- Testify to the nations about Christ’s first coming.
- Wait and keep watch for the Messiah’s return, or second coming.
What is Christmas Eve Really About?
Christmas Eve, back then, was about waiting for Jesus, God’s Messiah, to finally come.
Christmas Eve today is about waiting for Jesus to return, to finally come back.
So Christmas Eve is about waiting.
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