We all want to believe something around Christmas time. Endless movies, songs, and books search for the true meaning of Christmas. Something intrinsic to the Christmas season prompts us to search for meaning and purpose as no other holiday can.

But what are we to believe about Christmas? Can readers today find any certainty about the events that transpired 2,000 years ago -- or are we left to doubt?

If there is any meaning wrapped up in Christmas, it can only be found in truth. In the quest for Christmas, we will search for this truth from a variety of angles, digging deep into the story of Christmas, its affect on history, the prophecies leading up to it, and the meaning exposed through it.

At the end of our quest, we seek confident hope -- the assurance, verified in hard-won trust, that God truly is with us.

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As soon as we embark on our quest for Christmas, resistance rises to meet us.

Yet this resistance is not evil. It means no harm.

Rather it is curious. It seeks truth. It seeks to believe only what is real.

Because of this, what began as resistance can become a source of strength.

Recently a friend of mine launched a long conversation targeting Christmas. To him, the story made little sense. He could accept that some people wanted to believe it, but he could not see how any rational, intelligent person could ever conclude that the story as related in Matthew and Luke happened.

At the heart of our conversation, he said this:

I would be content to stop at this point if you’d agree with the following statement:

“I recognize that my historical and textual interpretations are not necessarily the ones that an objective, non-sectarian scholar would adopt, but I believe they’ve been revealed to me and other believers by God as the true meaning of his scriptures.”

Can you hear his struggle?

As he saw it, no historian or philosopher would look at the Christmas story and conclude it happened. He could let others believe in Christmas if they wanted, as long as we stopped insisting that the events truly happened.

To be fair to my friend, this kind of doubt is often honest. It stems from a smart mind that asks fair questions. It’s exactly the kind of mind we want joining us on our quest for Christmas.

My friend made several good points. If you can’t prove that something happened, how can you convince others it happened? If you can’t verify something you believe, why should anyone believe it?

This is exactly the kind of doubt that Luke wrote his Gospel to address. Luke begins his account of the life of Jesus with the Christmas story, relating in detail how Christ entered the world.

But before Luke begins the story, he takes time to address the need for certainty about truth:

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1–4, ESV, emphasis added).

Luke’s desire — the passion which drove him to complete his epic account of Jesus’ life — was the desire to give his friend certainty about his beliefs.

In the quest for Christmas, certainty matters. If we cannot trust the story we’re told, how could it ever change our lives?

Luke never shuns the curious or shames the doubting. Rather, Luke addresses the need for certainty head-on. Luke knows the material he presents will be unique — and to some, difficult to believe.

Luke acknowledges the difficulty inherent in believing the Christmas story, along with the rest of his Gospel. That’s why he took such care to consult the eyewitnesses, gather the evidence, and write an orderly account.

Doubt is understandable. We are claiming incredible things to declare that God took on flesh and lived among us.

But what if these events truly happened?

If God truly existed and took on flesh, what would it look like? What would we expect to find in history? How would people respond to such an event — both the powerful and the downtrodden? How would we expect it to change the world?

After all, if Christmas is real, we should be able to verify it.

Matthew and Luke record a Christmas story that happened in real places, at a specific time, involving historical people, with details so unique and far-reaching that they cannot hide in the record of history. If they happened, we should be able to verify them. If they didn’t, then we should be able to disprove them. Like detectives, we can examine the evidence and follow it to the truth it reveals, whatever that may be.

This is the way Christianity has presented itself from the beginning. The claims may be incredible, but the evidence is compelling. Therefore, don’t take our word for it. Study it for yourself and discover the God waiting at the answer to all your questions.

Paul, whom Luke traveled with extensively, wrote the following to address the same need for certainty Luke addressed:

I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. […]

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

[…] if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:3–9, 12–14, 17–19, ESV)

Paul lays the matter out as starkly as possible. If the story of Jesus is fake, then Christianity is worthless — “vain.” If Jesus was not the true God who took on flesh, died on the Cross, and rose three days later, then the Christians who believe such things are “of all people most to be pitied.”

But if Jesus is who He claimed to be, then these are the matters of “first importance.” If God took on flesh to live among us, if this same God died on the Cross for us, and if this same God returned to life to defeat death and open the way to Heaven, then there is no better news.

What could possibly be better?

Death is defeated! Life will continue long after our frail bodies pass away.

Love is eternal! We will live in a true Paradise, loving and being loved by God and all those with us forever.

Hope wins! Everything you’ve longed for will indeed come true — ultimate meaning, purpose to living, hope beyond death, significance in suffering, love that sees your very soul and cherishes you completely, beauty enduring and wisdom increasing and joy overflowing.

What could possibly be better than this?

Yet Paul and Luke never leave the matter to blind faith. Both encourage their audience: examine the evidence.

The quest for Christmas never limits itself to blind belief. Our quest tackles the hardest questions, digging into the best evidence we can find, so that — as Luke promises — we may find certainty.

As Paul declared, if the Jesus story is fake, then it should be discarded. No one should believe a lie.

But if the Jesus story is true — if God became a baby and entered world 2,000 years ago — then we have every possible reason to hope.

Welcome to the quest for Christmas, my friends.