Immanuel: the name assigned to the Messiah by the prophet Isaiah. Immanuel means “God with us”, and it’s easy to see how this might be applied to the baby Jesus. God had truly come in the flesh. This Isaiah passage gets thrown around a good bit this time of year. Many Christians take time leading up to December 25 to reflect on and remember the birth of Jesus in a variety of ways. Some choose not to recognize the holiday in this light. Either way, every Christian should know there is something much more significant than the mere fact that Jesus was born. You might be surprised to know that early Christmas traditions recognized this.

Early Christmas trees were trimmed a little differently than the average decorated tree today. First, candles were commonly placed on the tree to represent Christ – the “light of the world”. I’ve never been sure how the candle thing worked on a dry tree, but today candles have been replaced by electric lights. In addition to this, some would hang wafers of bread on the tree. Why would this be?

The Eucharist meal/Lord’s Supper employs unleavened bread (commonly in the form of small wafers) to commemorate the fleshly body of Jesus sacrificed on the cross. This same fleshly body was raised again the third day. In this way, early Christmas traditions connected a recognition of Jesus’ birth with the ultimate purpose of his incarnation – his death.

The truth is, Jesus birth cannot stand alone. Without his atoning death, his birth is meaningless…a notable birth, but ultimately a pointless birth. In the same way, without his birth, the cross is meaningless. If God had not come in the flesh, he could not have been an effective sacrificial representative of mankind or “sympathized with all our weaknesses” (Heb. 4:15).

By connecting his birth to his death with a wafer-adorned Christmas tree, perhaps early celebrants of Christmas were more aware than we might give them credit about the true significance of Jesus coming in the flesh. Anyone who regards Christmas today in honor of Jesus Christ should have the same mindset. There is much to celebrate in the birth of Christ and even more to celebrate in his life, death and resurrection. All of it is worthy of our praise and worship of the Father, and these various aspects of Jesus’ life are inextricably connected.

Finally, beyond his birth, death and resurrection, we look forward to his appearing again and the resurrection of our own bodies into new, heavenly bodies. The Lord’s Supper is a constant reminder that Jesus Christ was born in the flesh, died in the flesh and arose in the flesh. He is Immanuel – with us then, with us now, and with us forever in the New Heavens and New Earth.