Only a fool says "Happy Birthday Jesus" on Christmas day

I know it is a harsh thing to say that “a fool says, "Happy Birthday Jesus" on Christmas day”, and I am one of those fools as well. But as I was doing theological reflection and praying, I came to realise that it is foolish to Box Jesus in something so absolutely silliness as “Happy Birthday”. And the reality is that how often have we heard the silly statement on the 25th of December, where people would say or post “Happy Birthday Jesus”. These words are so theologically incorrect and absolutely a silly thing to say, with hidden theological dangers in that statement. Maybe we need to explore this a bit more.

When we reflect on some of the Old Testament texts, some of the authors give exact dates, for example in Ezekiel 1:1, the author gives the date as follow “In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.” But now, when it comes to the birth of Jesus, we do not get a month or a day, but simply a sort of indication when it was, for example Luke 1:5 Luke writes “In the time of Herod king of Judea”, which gives us an indication of the period, but not an exact date.

The Gospel according to Mark and John clearly does not give us a birth narrative, but John gives us the following “In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word [Jesus] was with God, and the Word [Jesus] was God. He [Jesus] was with God in the beginning. Through him [Jesus] all things were made; without him [Jesus] nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:1-3). This scripture gives a clear indication from verse one that “Jesus”, is the Word of God and is God, and John includes the words of Jesus in his version of the Gospel where Jesus said, “before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), giving a clear indication that Jesus already existed as God even before He was incarnated as a babe.

I suspect that the authors of the Gospels may have purposefully tried to avoid giving exact dates or even avoid birth narratives, consciously or sub-consciously as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write these things down, so that, even though Jesus was fully human through the birth, the hearers and readers of the Gospels would grasp Jesus’ full divinity as the Son of God, but also as a person of God.

The dangers in trying to humanise Jesus too much, with silly statements like “Happy Birthday Jesus”, may lead to the same silly doctrines as “Mary is the mother of GOD?!”. But Mary was the mother of the babe and human part of Jesus, but not the mother of His divinity.

Now, the reason I say there are dangers in the statement “Happy Birthday Jesus” is because:

1. It has the potential to have people look at the 25th of December 6 BC as the beginning of the Son of God, but it is far from the truth, as Jesus has existed in all eternity with God.
2. It has already led to the misunderstanding of what Christmas and advent is about. People look at the 25th of December not only as the birth of Jesus but fell into the trap of commercialisation and “Happy Holidays” and great misunderstanding of God’s gift to humankind.
3. Humanity has gone as far as the mess up the Christmas season by replacing it with a jolly fat man in a once blue suit, but now a red suit, where it is about gifts, which must be earned by being good, else one gets a sack of coal. Now, that means the Christmas now becomes a Theology of a fat man in suit and gifts are earn by works. But the true Theology of Christ is a gift of grace not works? Furthermore, the theology of the fat man in a suit has gone as far as making parents for centuries now lie to their children and even put parents under severe stress if they cannot afford for this “Santa dude” to bring gifts to their children and they must continue to compete with their neighbour’s children. Absolutely silliness. No wonder people end up calling it the silly season!!!
4. The meaning of Advent is forgotten. People focus on Christmas day and forget about the cross, and then only focus on Easter and the chocolate eggs?!

Christmas is a season starting from the first day of advent, which the preparing and celebration of the coming Christ. It continues into the season of the Easter season, where between the Christmas season and the Easter season we reflect on the ministry and teachings of Jesus. The Cross makes no sense without the Christmas season, and the Christmas season makes no sense without the Cross, just as the New Testament makes no sense without the Old Testament.

Therefore, don't say “Happy Birthday Jesus”, but rather pray, “Thank you Lord Jesus, for coming from Your lofty places to be our Emanual, to be God with us, for your free gracious gift of salvation, and for emptying yourself, for our sake, for your unending love” AMEN

Love and blessings,
Rev. AR Jansen