Growing up in the communist country of Yugoslavia, going to church was not forbidden. One could not be a member of the Communist Party and go to church, but others could. However, Christmas was not publicly celebrated. People would buy Christmas trees and decorate them privately in their homes on Christmas Eve, but, being a communist country in which the majority of people lived very modest lives, buying gifts for Christmas was not something that was prominent. For example, my Mum’s generation would get an orange or something like that as a Christmas gift! Buying gifts became more prominent in the ’70s and ’80s, and, after the Homeland War in the ’90s when Croatia became an independent country, things changed. Specifically, Croatia gradually became more and more influenced by the West. Now Christmas sales start very early in December, and Advent celebrations start late in November with the decoration of Christmas trees.

Today, Christmas is mostly about shopping-mania and outward appearance expressed in material things. Children understand Christmas mainly through gifts, often nagging their parents to buy them something for Christmas. Several years ago when my son asked me, “Dad, what will you buy me for Christmas?” I had to give him a straight theological answer: “Son, Dad will not buy you anything. It is not your birthday anyway; it’s Jesus’!” Joking aside, I did buy him something for Christmas, but I just wanted to teach him something about the true nature of Christmas.

One of the texts that speaks about the true nature of Christmas is 2 Corinthians 8:9. Paul pastorally deals with one practical problem: the collection of help for the Jerusalem church that was in need. The church in Corinth started to participate in that collection, yet it seems that they were not quite willing to complete this act of grace. So Paul is using the example of the Macedonian churches, who had already finished collecting their gift despite some intense challenges, to encourage the Corinthians to finish with their collection for believers in Jerusalem. In the context of 2 Corinthians 8–9, it is clear that Paul is talking about a collection of material gifts (money). But in the midst of this practical, pastoral problem, Paul is challenging the Corinthians not only by comparing them with the earnestness of the Macedonian churches but also by introducing the following statement about Christ in verse 9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

There is an interpretive challenge in this text. When Paul speaks about the collection for the Jerusalem church, it is clear that he is talking about material, financial gifts. When he says that Christ who was “rich” became “poor” so that, through “his poverty,” those who were in Christ might become “rich,” it is not obvious what exactly he is referring to. In what way can we understand Jesus’ “poverty” and “richness”? The first thing that we can establish is that Jesus’ poverty is something that made believers rich. If Jesus’ poverty made us rich, then it is obvious that this does not refer to material things. Consequently, Jesus’ richness also does not refer to material things. Rather, Paul here refers to the distinction between the “richness” of Jesus’ heavenly existence and the “poverty” of His earthly existence, which includes His incarnation, life, death and resurrection. Paul masterfully combines speech about two types of richness and poverty into one single idea: if the God that we worship was willing to sacrifice Himself for us and for our benefit, then we are obligated to follow His example. And in this concrete example from 2 Corinthians 8, this includes financial sacrifice for the sake of others.

As we approach the Christmas season, this text and the hymn that is derived from it are powerful reminders that the true nature of Christmas is not in buying (expensive) material gifts but in the willingness to live sacrificially for the benefit of others.