Beech Tree News Network

It happens almost like clockwork. Each year, right around Thanksgiving, Christians begin to get all worked up about the holidays. The main source of the frustration comes from the belief that there is a conspiracy afoot to effectively remove the celebration of the birth of Jesus from the Christmas season. This conspiracy is best seen in the use of ‘X’ in place of ‘Christ’ in the word Christmas. I can remember, as a child, seeing ‘Merry Xmas’ and thinking, “Those people don’t love Jesus…they’re taking the Christ out of Christmas!” And, if you’ve been on Facebook or any other social media avenue, you know that this is a hot topic for lots of well meaning people who want to stand up for Jesus in a culture that has little place for him. I appreciate the sentiment, and the desire to call us—especially Christians!—to remember the sacred meaning of this season. However, too often statements about the evil intentions of the ‘Xmas’ crowd reveal a lack of historical perspective on the issue.

The word ‘Christmas’ [or the Christ-mass] is essentially made up of two words. The word ‘mas’ is derived from an Old English word that has Latin roots, and that would be the word “mass.” Mass is another way of referring to liturgy, to the Eucharist [or Lord’s Supper/Communion]. Mass is simply referring to the act of taking the body and blood of Jesus as part of our worship.

The other word, of course, is Christ—and this is the point of contention. Where did people even come up with the idea of using ‘X’ instead of Christ? Well, I’m glad you asked. The Bible wasn’t originally written in English. Jesus never said ‘thee’ or ‘thou.’ The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was originally written in Greek. The word ‘Christ’ is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word ‘Messiah,’ which means ‘anointed one.’ Christ, in Greek looks like this: christo, j. That would be the Greek letters chi, rho, iota, sigma, tau, omicron, and a sigma [this one looks different because it’s at the end of the sentence]. The ‘X’ in Xmas is simply the first letter of Christ in Greek. Using ‘X’ is in no way removing Christ. It is simply an abbreviation or shorthand form of the same word.

There may be real ways in which our culture is trying to attack and alter the meaning of Christmas. This particular way, however, was not invented by a hostile culture, but by Christians [or Xians, if you like] more than a thousand years ago. When we spend time on issues like how we spell Christmas, we lose our focus and allow ourselves to fall into the real deception—that Christmas is about spending lots of money we don’t have on things. How many of us trumpet the cause to ‘Keep Christ in Christmas,’ yet the way we spend and keep the season is doing more damage to the true meaning of Christmas than using ‘Xmas’ ever thought of doing. We should keep Christ—not just in name, and not just at Christmas. We should keep Christ in every area of our lives: the way we treat others [especially our enemies], the way we prioritize our spending and the use of our time and energy. Keep Christ here, first. Then the culture will see that there is more to being a Christian than getting excited about a couple days a year—it’s a whole lifestyle.

So, merry Xmas to you and yours, and may the grace and peace of Jesus be with you.