Christmas: The Great Exchange

People sometimes think gift-giving distracts us from the real meaning of the season, but there’s a deeper truth at stake.

It’s an iconic Christmas scene: a brightly-lit, cheerfully-decorated Christmas tree. Under the branches are carefully wrapped presents topped with shiny bows, prepared for the common and cherished tradition of exchanging gifts. Christmas morning is a demonstration of love—parents to children, sibling to sibling, friend to friend.

People sometimes think gift-giving distracts us from the real meaning of the season, but there’s a deeper truth at stake. Love-based giving is central to Christian spirituality. It began with God. To illustrate this, the Rev. Dr. Emily McGowin, a Canon Theologian in my diocese, writes in her recent book, Christmas: The Season of Life and Light:

“Christmas is about God’s gift to us, which is God’s own self in the person of Jesus Christ…it is ‘the great exchange’ [in which] God became human, and humans became one with God…exchanging our sin and death for participation in the divine life.”

Yes! Jesus was God’s word given to us. He was a divine message, the way to know what it means to be human in the image of God. Jesus’ teachings were life-altering. His preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom was a summons, an either/or confrontation with the human soul. Jesus’ words came with a built-in demand for a definite, faithful response: Repent, stop what you are doing for a moment and question your worldview, examine your filters, review all the aspects of your life to see where you might be missing the mark of divine intention.

Some who listened to Jesus’ words did not have ears to hear. The rich young ruler walked away. The Jewish religious leaders stubbornly clung to their religious error. Jesus explains the tragedy of refusing the Great Exchange—the invitation to exchange our life with his:

What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

Matthew 16:26 

The Sermon on the Mount tells us that if we choose earthly gain and refuse the Great Exchange, we will lead an unstable life, like a house built on sand. But if we listen to Jesus and pick up what he is laying down, we will learn how to practice Christmas—how to place our life in the flow of the Great Exchange. When we hear and respond to Jesus’ gracious invitation to participate in the Great Exchange, we find a rock-solid place to stand, a source of security, a basis for feeling safe, and a foundation for peace and confidence (Matthew 7:24–29). 

The Son pierces the evil world with healing light. In God’s Son, we gain hope to carry on in our mad world, knowing there is a final Great Exchange to come:

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

1 John 3:2-3 

Here, the word purify points to the reality that all who have tasted the Great Exchange and look forward to its final consummation are giving themselves enthusiastically to the pursuit of Christlikeness, resisting inclinations to sin, and nourishing thirst for true righteousness—tucking themselves tightly into the Son. This life of purity requires that we obey Jesus’ command to deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow him.

On Christmas morning, many of us will walk over to the Christmas tree, bend over to retrieve a gift, and place our symbol of love in someone’s waiting hands. This cherished tradition, played out millions of times each Christmas, is a symbol of what the first Christmas brought to bear: A Son is given that we might give our lives to the Son.

This year, as you give and receive gifts, may they be a symbol to you of God’s greatest gift, the Great Exchange. May you choose true gain and resist anything that seeks to rival the goodness and value of Christ. May God’s love for you in the giving of his only Son make you feel loved and cherished, valued and welcomed, always safe and secure. 

Merry Christmas!  

This post was originally published at C4SO.org.