Slideshow image

Start with clip of Coca-Cola Holidays Are Coming “Always the real thing”
Start at 00:38  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuo7AJDwkko

“Always the real thing” ... until it wasn’t. What was the biggest scandal of the 2025 holiday season? The Coca-Cola Christmas Commercial was AI! Artificial Intelligence. And people noticed!

Artificial Intelligence is a big topic right now, so why not bring it up on Christmas Eve/Day! We just heard the story of Jesus’ Birth – “the Birth of the Messiah took place in this way” as Matthew’s Gospel puts it. God came as a real baby in a real manger with real parents. And while we have spent 2,000 years putting artificial glitz and glamor around this particular moment, Jesus remains the Real Thing.

I put the text of the Gospel into an AI image generator. The images that were produced were exactly ;what you would expect. Just think of a Christmas card from 1957, and you won’t be wrong. The descriptions that were generated for each of the images were hilarious! They were all very similar. They all included the word “serene”. And 2 of them were inaccurate! All of it was very much not real and not intelligent.

God coming into the world as a real human baby is important for our relationship with God. For the typical person, being born is the most dangerous activity they can do. Ask any midwife or any OBGYN. Being born is actually highly dangerous[1]. It’s also the greatest environmental shock that the typical person will experience when they transition between womb to the world. So, God did that for us. God did the most real thing that we experience because God so loved the world. God did the most real thing that we experience because this isn’t just a story of God coming into the world 2,000yrs ago. This story is our story – this story is your story, the story of your salvation, the story of your promise to Eternal Life!

The Messiah came as a person because people felt that God was distant, remote, unrelatable. What could be more relatable than for God to become human? What could be more relatable to understanding the challenges of the human condition than being born in a cattle stall? “Surely He has borne our griefs” is no longer the AI...of GI (God intelligence). It’s real!

So, how do we make this 2,000yo story real for us today? Well, first of all, it’s real because it’s not just Jesus’ story, it’s your story. Then, we do what the Shepherds did:

When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.

In whatever way works for you, tell people about the Love of God through Jesus Christ. That is the ultimate Christmas gift. That is the original Christmas gift.

Then, we keep this story real for us today by continuing to do what He told us to do. Jesus was pretty good at summing up what we’re supposed to do:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your strength, and with all your mind.

AND

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

What can be more real than that? There isn’t any amount of AI that can achieve that.

When we endeavor to love our neighbor as ourself, we look for Jesus Christ in them. When we find Christ in the other, we will make peace for them. When we make peace for them, we make peace for the world. No amount of AI can do that.

Because of His birth at Bethlehem, because of His relationships we read about in scripture, because of His Death on the Cross, because of His Resurrection to new life, Jesus is the Real Thing. And as we recall the story of His Coming and await His Coming, we must remember that His story is our story, too!

What we celebrate today, and what we hope for in our future is very true and real:

  • a child born for us, a son given to us with authority resting upon his shoulders
  • the majesty and magnificence of his presence! (Psalm)
  • the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior (Titus)
  • the Messiah, the Lord.

Jesus Christ: Always the Real Thing!

Merry Christmas!

 

 

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/how-do-the-risks-of-death-change-as-people-age?

Downloads