Should You Watch The Nativity Story?

As the Christmas season began, I am sure many of you wondered what presents you will be giving to the people you love as well as the presents you hope to be getting. You probably began listening to Christmas music after Thanksgiving or you started sooner because you just want to. Like most people I know, one thing my family and I look forward to every year is Christmas movies. I am sure some of the men reading this are rolling their eyes at the thought of watching 100 Hallmark movies.

My family and I have many favorite Christmas movies such as Home Alone, The Grinch (the one with Jim Carrey), and the Santa Clause. One favorite of ours is The Nativity Story. I will have be to honest, the first time I heard about this movie, I did not have high expectations. For one it is a Hollywood movies telling the story of Christ's birth. For another there will be a lot of liberties because the Bible does not go into great detail about the birth of Christ as does His earthly ministry, death, burial, and resurrection.

When I finally saw the movie, I was amazed at the quality of the movie and how well it tried to stay on course with the history that took place during Christ's birth. Was the movie accurate regarding the birth of Christ? Not perfectly. As expected, the movie took a lot of liberties in the dramatization of the birth of Christ. There were a lot of things added in the story that was not in the Bible. Overall, it was a good movie.

Now comes the question if this is a movie I should watch. I would not say you cannot celebrate Christmas if you do not watch it, but it will be an open door for your family to discuss the birth of Christ. It might be an open door to share the gospel with friends that are coming over to watch a movie. It will also be a good opportunity to open the Bible and see what says regarding the birth of Christ not just when it happened but why it happened.

Some of you may say that this could violate the second commandment where we are to have no image of God made. Well, I am not calling all to worship the baby on the screen. We are to worship the Risen King. Praise God that Baby grew up (Luke 2:52). Some of you may not want to watch this movie and that's fine. This is a matter of Christian liberty. You may hate the movie and that is okay too. You are no more spiritual if you hate this movie or don't see it and no less spiritual if you like it.

Whether you use this movie, though unperfect as it is, I hope you show people and remind your family that the story of Christmas not about giving us a holiday, but to remember why God sent Jesus. He sent Him to live on our behalf and die on our behalf. He lived a sinless life which a miracle in itself because we are all born with a sinful nature except Jesus. Mary's sinful nature, which goes back to Adam, did not transfer to Jesus Christ. This is why the Virgin Birth was so miraculous not just a virgin giving birth, but that baby did not receive a sinful nature.

So if you use this movie, please open the Bible and share why Christmas is important to all who call on the name of the Lord. If you do not, do that same thing.