Beware, you faint of heart: It's the Reason

Scripture with a soundtrack. So there I was, sitting in the café at work and reading “The Many Gospels of Jesus” (co-written by Philip W. Comfort and my pal Jason Driesbach) while eating lunch. Technically, at that point in the book I was reading Luke’s Gospel, and in the background I heard the sound of holiday music. It struck me how this time of year can make us simultaneously reverent and aweless. This was illustrated to me in an oddly beautiful manner. I was reading Luke chapters 22 & 23, which contain very heavy events: Judas plots with the high priests, Jesus explains his sacrifice at the Last Supper, Jesus accepts God’s will that he should suffer & die, he is arrested, denied by Peter, brought to trial before the Sanhedrin and then before Pilate, he is beaten and mocked, he is crucified and his body laid in a tomb.

Rattled. Two songs played while I was reading these things, and the timing was profound. As I read about the Last Supper I became aware that the song playing over the speakers was O Holy Night, a song of joy and reverence which admonishes us to respond with humble worship and glorious song as we remember the most divine of nights. The song continued as I read Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives, where he accepted the cup of suffering from the Father. I wondered what could strike me more deeply than hearing a song celebrating the birth of the Son of God while reading of his submission to God’s will that he would save us with his own blood. But as I continued reading, O Holy Night ended and the next song began. From Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives, the scriptures takes us into the accounts of his betrayal & arrest, Peter’s denial, the sham trials during which no blame could be assigned to Jesus, and his torture during which he was mocked until he breathed his last. The song that played while I read these things: Silver Bells. I was indeed struck, or more like rattled.

Santa’s big scene. It is easy to wrap our hearts around a song like Silver Bells. Face it, everybody’s happy and shopping and “dressed in holiday style.” This is a song about the time of year when kids giddy on the prospect of Santa’s arrival cannot fall asleep until they are utterly exhausted (which just might be the genius behind the Catholic midnight mass. hmmm…). Eggnog, mistletoe, mesmerizing displays in the front yards…Ho-ho-ho. How often it is that Santa gets the glory.

“…Hear the snow crunch,
see the kids bunch,
This is Santa's big scene,
And above all this bustle you'll hear:

“Silver bells, silver bells,
It's Christmas time in the city.
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring,
soon it will be Christmas day.”

Lights, please. I have no problem with the sentimental aspect of Christmas. I love it. I have watched the animated TV specials almost every year and now that I have kids I can actually talk about watching those shows without people saying, “really, you still watch those?” Rudolph and all those stop motion specials, the Grinch, Charlie Brown, they are still a big part of what I love about Christmas. And what about Home Alone? Or the Christmas Story? I mean c’mon! They’re so much fun you’ll shoot your eye out! These stories are so much easier to understand than the messy birth of the King of Heaven in a filthy stable, whose plan for life in this world was to serve and save a world that rejected and murdered him. Even Charlie’s meek and wise friend Linus stops short of raising the latter part of the story when he humbly quotes Luke’s gospel in one of the very few Christmas specials that is actually bold enough to remind us that the real “Christmas Story” is Biblical.

The incomplete nativity scene (a tangent). Since I became a believer I’ve found Christmastime causes me to ponder the end of Jesus’ earthly life more than the beginning. I do not ignore the blessing of the Savior’s birth - that would be impossible. But no matter how festive the season is, how appropriately or inappropriately joyous I feel at the moment, I cannot let go of the fact that Jesus was born to die. Whenever I look at a nativity display, I am overwhelmed by the thought that it is an utterly incomplete illustration. I always want to see a cross behind that stable, in the not-to-far distance. But then again, if we put the cross behind the stable we’ll have to put the tomb behind the cross (stone rolled away, of course), and then we’d have to conjure an image that would display the Son in glory at the right hand of the Father, which of course is impossible. … mmmaybe that’s why the cross isn’t behind the stable. I guess we have to draw the line somewhere in our far from perfect illustrations of the season. Except when it comes to colored lights on and around the house.

(North) Polar opposites. So how can we reconcile these two worlds of Christmas – the cultural and the sacred, the Silver Bells and the Holy Night? We can’t. The former offers us a world that is joyous by our own doing, where we deceive ourselves into thinking that annual acts of charity and goodwill are where redemption lies, and that as long as the family gets it together by Christmas Day, the blessing of the season will be upon us, thanks be to Hollywood. However, the latter shows us a world where peace between men will only be possible if there is first peace between men and God, where the work of redemption is accomplished by the Savior alone, a King who loves the un-loveable and fulfills the ancient promise that those of true faith WILL find eternal salvation, thanks be to God. The best we can do is share the story of that Holy Night when our Savior was born as we exchange our gifts and enjoy our families & friends. And we can strive to remember that Jesus redeemed this season, even the Silver Bells, not in the manger, but on the cross.


"He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. For he is sent by God. He speaks God's words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. And anyone who believes in God's Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn't obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God's angry judgment."
- John 3:31-36 (NLT)