The week before Christmas, my neighbor walked in my back door and found me making Christmas cookies and singing, “Let us sing of Easter gladness” (Frances Thompson Hill, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 171). She laughed and said I had my holidays mixed up.
But did I? Aren’t Jesus’ nativity (Christmas) and his resurrection (Easter) inextricably linked? If Christ Jesus had not come, he could not have been resurrected, proving for all mankind that God is the Life of man, and Love the master of hate. And had he not fulfilled his God-appointed mission, we wouldn’t be celebrating his birth.
It seems to me that anyone giving thoughtful attention to these two momentous events would come to see their undeniable link; and pondering that Christ-link more deeply would make Christmas even more meaningful—the Christ more alive and important in our lives—than ever. It certainly has for me. It also gives me an inner peace and love for mankind that all the busyness and commercialization of Christmas cannot take away.
The Christ, God’s self-revealing activity, has always manifested God’s presence and power to humanity in ways humanity could understand. For centuries, through the prophets, God had been preparing humanity’s thought for the coming of the Messiah, or Savior. At the right time, “the divinity of the Christ was made manifest in the humanity of Jesus” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 25). It was that Christ-element, Mrs. Eddy explains, that made Jesus the Way-shower (see p. 288).
At Christmastime, I love my “manger moments,” as I call the practice of taking time each day to cherish the Christ—especially every evidence of the Christ (or Messiah) lived, loved, taught, and proved by Christ Jesus during his three-year healing ministry. Using the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) as my text, together with What Christmas Means to Me and Other Christmas Messages (a compilation of Mary Baker Eddy’s writings about Christmas), I let the Christ speak to me freshly, specifically, and it does.
Always, whatever stands out to me makes Christmas even more meaningful and emphasizes the Christly qualities in Jesus that kept getting stronger and stronger, preparing him for his full and final demonstration of Christian Science—victory over death. Qualities such as tenderness and tirelessness, devotion and dedication, compassion and confidence, integrity and humility, faithfulness and obedience, patience and persistence, strength and certainty, spiritual joy and dominion.
This not only shows me how important Christmas is to our understanding of Easter, and vice versa, but also how important every moment was in between those two events in Jesus’ career! If he had waffled at any time in the acceptance or execution of his God-appointed mission, we wouldn’t have either commemoration. Each incident reported between his nativity and resurrection authenticates the significance of his birth and seals the certainty of the fulfillment of his mission.
At Christmastime, I love my “manger moments,” as I call the practice of taking time each day to cherish the Christ.
During one of my manger moments, what stood out to me was the occasion right after Jesus’ baptism, when God’s voice said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). The Bible goes on to show us the Master’s unshakable commitment to his mission. From then on, he never hesitated nor turned back.
Another time, what impressed me so significantly happened right after the baptism, when Jesus was led by God into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Immediately, he was being tried. The devil was so subtle, trying to plant doubt by beginning every temptation with, “If you’re the Son of God ….” Yet all during this severe 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, Jesus remained faithful to his mission. His alertness and steadfast fidelity continued throughout his entire ministry, never wavering.
Still another day, what stood out to me was Jesus’ consistency in acknowledging his oneness with the Father, and his consecration to proving it by healing. He wasn’t just saying it; he was living it, rising higher in his understanding with every experience and healing.
This past Christmas, my most inspiring manger moment was a glimpse of the glory Jesus experienced in the garden of Gethsemane. How many times I’d read the phrase “During his night of gloom and glory in the garden” (Science and Health, p. 47) and wondered, “Where was there any glory in that garden?” Glory is brightness, shining—and Jesus was sweating “as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).
His glory became obvious afterward. But Mary Baker Eddy saw that it was even there in the garden. She writes, “During his night of gloom and glory in the garden, Jesus realized the utter error of a belief in any possible material intelligence.” And she says further on that he “turned forever away from earth to heaven, from sense to Soul” (p. 48). Intellectually, I got it—that all human supports had failed him (even his own disciples couldn’t watch one hour with him). But I must see and feel for myself the divine glory that Jesus felt and saw!
So, while studying the Matthew, Mark, and Luke accounts of Jesus’ garden experience, right after his plea that this cup pass from him, and his sincere prayer “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42), I noticed this verse, which only Luke records: “And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him” (Luke 22:43). What a beautiful manifestation of God’s presence—God’s thoughts speaking directly, specifically to Jesus, meeting him right where he was, at his point of need, his point of understanding, assuring, comforting, and lifting him even higher.
We’re not told what the message was, but we do know what it did. It gave Jesus the comfort and strength he needed to endure and overcome his upcoming crucifixion. Such a sweet, strong reassurance of the certainty of God’s allness and goodness it had to have been! A clear glimpse of the Christ, his true selfhood that filled his consciousness with light—the reality and royalty of his being. Later, this true view would recuperate him for triumph; yet he was given it now to hold to. And he did!
In John’s Gospel, after Jesus’ plea “Save me from this hour:” comes his acknowledgment “but for this cause came I unto this hour” and his prayer “Father, glorify thy name.” God answered him with this promise: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again” (John 12:27, 28). Wasn’t it that promise of God’s unstoppable goodness that enabled Jesus to pray, and mean it, “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42)? And he did mean it!
The glory I saw in the garden, and felt Jesus must have seen, was such a clear glimpse of the allness of God’s goodness that he claimed his victory then and there. Keeping his eye on the crown, he endured the cross and overcame death and the grave. What trust he had that God’s will is done, and is always, only good! To me, Jesus’ prayer was his fervent love for God, who was showing Jesus His faithful love for him.
Another Christmas season is upon us—time to welcome again these “manger moments.” I don’t know what facets of Christliness your manger moments will show you, but this I know: They will be there for you to see and grow by. They will be special, making Christmas and Christ Jesus and the Christ he manifested—the Messiah—even more precious and important.
