A Sobering Thought: "Were death not a reality, Christmas would not be necessary"

Carl R. Trueman, who is the Paul Woolley Professor of Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, posted "A Merry Pascalian Christmas!  over at "First Things". In it he points to the sobering reality underlying the awesomeness of Christmas.

Perhaps the irony of Christmas is that, in its current form, it has become one of the focal points of the culture of distraction, which Pascal so ably critiqued. It is all about consumption, which is just another form of distraction and diversion. It gives us a baby Jesus, helpless and conveniently trapped in a manger, a Christ who is just one more manageable commodity. Ironically, the real message of Christmas is the exact opposite: not to distract us from death but to point us toward death, and then its destruction in Christ. Were death not a reality, Christmas would not be necessary.

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