By Julian Milson, serving in Valencia, Spain
Jesus answered, ‘…For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’ John 18:37
I wonder how many Christmas talks you’ve heard on this verse? Not only are these words uttered during the Easter events (rather than the nativity) but they also touch on what, for many, is a modern taboo: the existence of an objective truth.
If you were to ask a Christian ‘why was Jesus born?’, you would most likely get the reply ‘to save the world’ (John 3:17) or a variation on that theme. That’s not incorrect! But this verse helps us to see another facet of the Incarnation: Jesus was born to testify to the truth.
Christmas is a time when we share the make-believe stories of a jolly gift-giver, a snowman who comes alive and three ghostly visitors who transform a miserly old man. But the reality is so much better than the Christmas myths we enjoy. Christmas is about truth. In fact, we could say that Jesus’ birthday is the point at which we begin to see things as they truly are, when divine reality breaks into a world that is dark with falsehood and lies.
Jesus says that the reason he came into the world, the reason we have Christmas, is so that we can know the truth. What a gift that is to humanity! In the shifting sands of ‘fake news’, photoshopped images and relentlessly redefined facts by those who shout loudest on social media, there is an objective, solid truth that Jesus reveals. And the way we access this truth is simply to listen to his voice.
We serve in a city that has largely lost its grip on the reality Jesus was born to reveal – but that doesn’t stop Jesus being true. This Christmas, stop and listen and then really listen to the one who testifies to the only truth.