Christmas and Modern Man

"Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe." (1 Corinthians 1:20-21 ESV)

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones believed that modern humanity's struggle with Christmas stems from a fundamental clash of worldviews. Contemporary thinking—shaped by rationalism, materialism, and humanism—cannot accommodate the supernatural intervention that Christmas represents.

Lloyd-Jones observes that the modern mind, having relegated God to the periphery, cannot comprehend a narrative centered on divine initiative. A worldview that begins and ends with human potential finds the Christmas message—that humanity requires divine rescue—intellectually offensive and emotionally unsatisfying.

The phrases "wisdom of the world" and "the folly of what we preach" highlight this fundamental incompatibility. Modern wisdom assumes that reality consists only of what can be observed, measured, and manipulated. The Christmas message proclaims that ultimate reality transcends the material world—that the invisible God entered visible creation, that the spiritual realm intersects with physical existence, that eternity entered time.

Lloyd-Jones emphasizes that Christmas challenges not just specific beliefs but entire systems of thought. The incarnation confronts scientific materialism by demonstrating that physical laws remain subject to their Creator. It challenges philosophical naturalism by revealing nature's openness to supernatural intervention. It refutes historical determinism by showing that God directs history toward His predetermined end.

Most fundamentally, Christmas challenges human autonomy. The modern mind resists the notion that humanity requires salvation from outside itself. Christmas proclaims precisely this: left to ourselves, we remain helplessly lost. Our hope lies not in human progress but divine intervention, not in societal evolution but spiritual revolution, not in self-improvement but God-initiated transformation.

The "folly" of Christmas—that the infinite became finite, that the creator joined the created, that salvation comes through a baby in a manger—confounds human wisdom precisely because it originates beyond human wisdom. Yet Lloyd-Jones reminds us that what appears foolish to human reckoning represents the wisdom of God.

This Christmas, recognize how contemporary thought patterns might hinder your appreciation of the incarnation's wonder. Have materialistic assumptions dulled your sensitivity to the spiritual? Has rationalistic thinking made the supernatural seem implausible? Has humanistic optimism diminished your sense of need for divine intervention?

The remedy lies in approaching Christmas not with the wisdom of this age but with childlike faith. The manger in Bethlehem stands as God's rebuke to human intellectual pride and His invitation to humble receptivity. Those who approach like the shepherds—with wonder rather than skepticism, with worship rather than critique—discover the wisdom hidden from the wise and revealed to little children.