I’m sure you’ve had some good ones, but I’m equally sure you’ve had some bad ones!
I’m writing with seventy of them behind me now. Some have been very sad indeed – loved ones not at the table, illness and troubles clouding the season. But some have been filled with great joy and happy memories. I’m talking about Christmases – and I think you’ll feel the same!
Whatever our experience – and however many – none of us can say that we have experienced a perfect Christmas. The question is, has there ever been such a thing? The Bible tells the answer, there has only ever been one – the first Christmas!
In the Gospel of Luke Chapter 2 v 1 – 7 the writer captures something of what that first Christmas was like:-
And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
In the compass of these words, Luke tells us seven things that made the first Christmas perfect!
Christmas happened at the perfect time
“And it came to pass in those days…” Aren’t those opening eight words just classic “Bible- speak”! But they are not without significance. They set up Christmas as a “real time” event. Christmas is set in history, factual names and places are mentioned, the scene set. In Galatians 4 v 4 we are told that this was “…the fulness of the time”. There was nothing random about this – everything was perfectly planned.
Christmas happened in the perfect circumstances
Roman rule was all pervasive. Ceasar Augustus, the grand-nephew of Julius Ceasar reigned over “all the world” (v1) in imperious power. His empire structure was supported in far flung places by puppet rulers of provinces and enclaves. Herod in Judea was such. William Hendriksen describes him as “capable, crafty and cruel”. Rome was expensive to run – a census and a tax system was a necessity to feed the mouth of this great leviathan. The “decree” goes out from the top – from Ceasar. But he was not the ultimate decider of circumstances; above him, far above him, was a Sovereign God, perfectly ordering all the events of history.
Christmas happened in a perfect place
725 years earlier, a Prophet by the name of Micah had been sent to the people of Judah and Israel, to tell them something very precise about God’s intended location of the perfect Christmas. Judgement was coming to the people, but salvation would follow, and it would emerge in a most unlikely place – Bethlehem! Although all the events in Luke’s account prior to chapter 2 have taken place in Jerusalem, Nazareth, and an unnamed town in “the hill country of Judah” (Luke 1 v 39), Christmas happened in the perfect location. Perfectly placed by prophecy, as the familiar carol tells us, was the “little town of Bethlehem”. In the tiniest of places, “The most stupendous event in all history” (Thompson Reference Bible Archaeological Supplement) takes place – here Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God took on flesh and was born as a baby.
Christmas was the fruit of perfectly suited parents
If Luke expected the first recipient of his narrative, Theophilus (see Chapter 1 v 1 – 4), to be a little surprised by his story so far, the parental scenario in our verses is a real eye-opener! Earlier in his first chapter he reveals a divine conception of the child within the mother’s womb, the virgin Mary! Joseph the “father” was not biologically so! The association of the two, travelling together to Bethlehem was totally against convention, social norms, and particularly against Jewish religious law and requirements. This unlikely couple are God’s chosen earthly parents for His perfect Christmas gift to the world – His beloved Son.
Christmas reveals a perfect child
Everything fits perfectly with another prophecy, spoken by Isaiah, around 700 years before: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel, God with us.” It is a perfect scenario, because the Saviour of the world, must be a real man, but a sinless man; and at the same time, he must be real God, the Son of God. Having no earthly father, Jesus did not inherit a human father’s sinful nature. The child born at the first Christmas had no imperfections in His character, in His thoughts, or in His behaviour.
The child Jesus was radically different to every other child ever born. What David says in Psalm 51 v 5 applies to us all: “…I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me”. The consequence of this is starkly laid out for us in Romans 3 v 23: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.
Christmas had a perfect beginning
We would surely have done things differently – designing the perfect Christmas would have seen the Son of God in a regal palace, his arrival trumpeted and announced with great magnificence – but what we see here is so different.
He was “wrapped in swaddling cloths”. The hymnwriter speaks of “hands that flung stars into space”, but these are wrapped tightly to His side to prevent His flailing fingers scratching His face. He is “laid in a manger”. He who spoke every creature on earth into existence at the beginning of time, now sleeps in the feeding trough of the most basic of them! There is “no room for them in the inn”. The amazing truth, that though the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, yet the inns of Bethlehem are too full to accommodate Him!
Christmas brings a perfect Saviour into the world
As the Saviour of sinners, Jesus must be born among them, live with them, and die for them – but not be a sinner like them! Wonderfully, Mary his mother knew how perfect this first Christmas was to be before it happened. When we turn back a page in Luke’s Gospel to chapter 1 v 46 – 47 we read her personal testimony: “And Mary said: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour'”. How did she come to this astounding conclusion? It all comes down to her simple faith in the word of God, revealed to her by the angel in Luke 1 v 31: “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus”. That name, so familiar to us, was an overwhelming reality to Mary – her son was to be the Saviour, the perfect answer to man’s fallen imperfections. Her so called “Magnificat” in Luke 1 v 46 – 55 was her song of wondering praise that has since thrilled Christians around the world. Though her words are full of magnificent theology, they speak of her personal testimony of salvation. Because of the child in her womb; it was for her the perfect Christmas!
The question that comes so forcibly to us this imperfect Christmas, is that posed by Mary’s statement in that passage in v 49: “…He who is mighty has done great things for me”. Have you come to know the reality of the perfect Saviour in your life?
Maybe, for the first time, this Christmas you could personalise the familiar words of Philips Brooks to be your sincere prayer of repentance and faith:
O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to me, I pray.
Cast out my sin and enter in,
Be born in me today.
It can never be a perfect Christmas – there has only been one – but it will be a very special one!
This article first appeared in the Evangelical Times Christmas Good News edition 2025 and is reproduced by permission of the author.