Some people may ask "Why do we celebrate Christmas? What is the big deal about the birth of Jesus Christ." One way to properly understand why we should celebrate the birth of Christ, perhaps more than anything else, is to take a look at what our world and hopes would have been like if Jesus was never born. There is much that could be said about this but for lack of time, I will limit myself to 8 issues.
If Jesus was never born,...
1. History would not have been what it is today. For the history of the world is divided into BC and AD meaning ‘Before Christ’ and ‘In the year of our Lord’ (Latin: Anno Domini) respectively. Imagine the world in which the past cannot be properly documented. The coming of Jesus was one most important event that became the reference point for understanding history. If Jesus was never born, we would have had difficulty organizing history.
2. If Jesus was never born, modern science would have been a mirage. The birth of Jesus brought us the bible that gave us the foundational truth about creation. This made further research productive because they were done with correct primary assumptions informed by the scriptures. When modern science was born in 16th and 17th century, it was given birth to by men who believed in Christ and had a biblical worldview. Almost all branches of modern science were started by men who were devoted to Jesus. In the words of Johannes Kepler who was a great Christian astronomer, they were simply “thinking God’s thoughts after Him.” They knew Jesus as an orderly God who created an orderly universe and it was their role as scientist to seek out what those rules are and use them to manage creation. If Jesus was never born the primary understanding that made science possible would not have been there and modern science would have been very different.
3. If Jesus was never born, education for the masses may never materialize. The Great Commission (i.e. the command to teach all nations) given by our Lord Jesus Christ to His followers resulted in Mass Education where ever Christianity entered. Christianity has brought literacy to hundreds of millions of people of all sorts of languages. Education for the elites has always been there but it was the commission of Jesus that spurred the Christian church to make education available for all. The first twelve schools in Nigeria were all Church schools. Out of the first 50 secondary schools in Nigeria, the church built 36. Today, literally, all the world famous universities were established as Christian centres of learning. They include Universities like Oxford, Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Many of the indigenous languages around the world were first written by Christian missionaries. The Yoruba language was first written by Bishop Ajayi Crowther. If Christ was never born, many of us today would not have had access to modern education.
4. It was the teachings of Jesus that brought about a high respect for human life. Before Christ was born, the world was a very dangerous place to live in. It was normal practice to throw away unwanted babies, plenty babies were part of everyday refuse found at the refuse sites and people were killed everywhere for sport. Christians ended all that by following the golden rule, a teaching of Jesus that says “Do to others as you will have them do to you.” It was the agitation of christian missionaries in the 1830s that stopped the practice called Suttee in India. A practice where the widow of a deceased husband was burnt alive with the body of the husband at his funeral. It was the Christian missionary Mary Slessor that stopped the killing of the twins in Calabar. If Christ was never born killing of twins and burning of widows may have continued till date.
5. William Wilberforce was moved by the teachings of Jesus to devote his entire life to the abolition of slave trade. He gathered together like minded people to seek to stop more slaves from being brought into the British empire for 25 years. Later, on his death bed he received the news that his lifelong ambition to stop slavery has succeeded in the British parliament. The notion that everyman was born equal before God came from the teachings of the scripture that says we are all created in the image of God. If Christ was never born, slavery would have continued today.
6. Christ coming and His teachings had a direct impact on the way the culture of charity, compassion and care for the poor and needy in the world has evolved. People moved by the teachings of Christ established charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army and Red Cross which has saved millions of lives from famine, natural disasters and war across the world. The love of Christ has motivated people like Mother Theresa to spend all of her life caring for the poor in India. If Christ was never born, lives saved by these organizations would have been wasted.
7. Modern hospital care is traceable to the compassion of Christ manifested through the first nurse, Florence Nightingale. Before, when people were sick of contagious diseases, they were considered to be cursed and taken away from home, away from other human beings and left alone to die. Florence carried them into one place and cared for them until they recover. Many other people moved by the compassion of Christ joined Florence to take care of the sick. They responded to the rebuke of Christ that says Matthew 25:43, 45 (NKJV) "I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me... Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me." What Florence Nightingale did was the beginning of what we call hospital today. If Christ was never born, nothing would have inspired Florence to risk her life to care for the sick and modern hospitals would not have evolved from it.
8. Jesus made forgiveness of sin, hope of eternal life and relationship with the Father possible. When humans relationship with God was based on human merit, no one was good enough to earn salvation. But the birth of Jesus and His sacrificial death on the cross for us changed all that. Now through faith in Him, our sins are forgiven, we receive eternal life and can now relate with God through His own merit.
These are a few of what we would have missed if Jesus was never born. Today we thank God and celebrate the fact that He was born, the world is a better place because of Him and we are beneficiaries of His birth.
Written by Ifiok Ukobo
President: Think Right and Live Right Club and Lifebuilders Ministry
Email : tralright@gmail.com
