Thank God Christmas Is Not Like The Movies.
I don’t know why there are so many Christmas movies but I feel like I’ve watched every one. This season my wife and I fell into a habit of running Christmas movies in the background while we did other things. How many did I watch?
Not only am I quoting them but I’m saying the lines in advance along with movies I’ve never seen before. They are that predictable. They all have the same themes and scenes that have absolutely nothing to do with actual Christmas.
Have A Happy Rom-Com Christmas.
What they actually are is one continuous Christmas romantic comedy. There will be snow. Or will there? There will be Santa. Or possibly not. Oh, dear! There will be one great mission just like the Let’s-put-on-a-show! pictures of the ’40s.
Shopping, gifts, nostalgia, and cornball antics will be laid on thick. A relationship will blossom but things will have to get worse before they get better. I wonder if it will work out?
Of course, it will, with bad music and all the emotion they can possibly wring out of us. But it’s not over yet. Not until the cute scene at the end, right before the credits roll to put a Christmas bow on it.
You know what’s coming before the opening theme song is over.
But Actual Christmas Is Not Predictable At All.
It started with the great and mighty Caesar Augustus, ruler of the known world, ordering all of his subjects to go to their home towns to register to be taxed. But this mighty ruler was unknowingly putty in the hands of God who ensured that Jesus would be born in exactly the right spot to fulfill an ancient prophecy, the city of David, Bethlehem.
When the great moment arrived, the Son of the Living God came to earth just like we all did, as a helpless baby. He was born in a barn with a feed trough for a bed. As the Christmas miracle occurred, the small town slept, unaware. No one expected him, least of all the tired herders pulling the night shift on a hill outside of town.
In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:
Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors! (Luke 2:14-18)
Then they were gone. That’s it. No Christmas kiss. No prancing reindeer. No 3 AM sleigh rides. No struggle to save the Christmas Inn that didn’t have enough room.
All we are left with is the God of the Universe becoming a human child to save all of mankind through an unimaginable act of self-sacrifice. It fulfilled to the letter thousands of years of prophecy. It changed the rest of history and stretches into eternity.
But this is the part they don’t put in the movies. Because this is the part they can’t believe.
Joy to the world
God did the unexpected in a very different way.
People of that day were looking for a great military leader to free them from the Roman occupation. People of today are looking for salvation without having to confront sin or the need for forgiveness. Any of us, had we been there that day, would have expected God to come to earth in power and glory with at least a pillar of fire. Hollywood would add a theme song.
But God asked a teenaged mother ‘great with child’ to ride a donkey to an overbooked inn. He chose to have His son spend the first night in a hay-filled manger. Jesus, who deserves all honor and glory, was placed below everyone so that no one would be left out.
In doing so, God showed the value of every human life, no matter how humble the circumstances.
David was a shepherd, chosen by God from the bottom of a hard-working, farm family to become king of the nation. Jesus was of the line of David, born in the city of David, and the first announcement of his birth came to shepherds working overnight to protect their flock.
This theme was not an accident.
The birth announcement of “Joy!,” was given to lowly shepherds on the same hills David worked, risking his life for the lives of herd animals.
No Hollywood writer would imagine such a plot. There would be at least one princess involved. It ignores the elite of society and lifts up the common man. It doesn’t sell merchandise or their essential philosophy that experts should run the world. They are left entirely out of the Christmas story. It’s like they were purposely ignored.
Instead, God celebrated, not with the elite, but with the lowliest people in the nation. He affirmed the value and dignity of every human life. He purposely brought joy to the world from the bottom up so we would all know we are loved and included.
Nameless shepherds on a lonely hilltop were given the highest honor of being the first to know while Caesar, ruling the world in his palace, was kept in the dark.
But God knew their names. And he remembered them. They were David’s kin and his legacy who were, on these same pastures, still protecting the flocks with their lives. Of all the people in Israel, God gave these men specific directions to their Shepherd King, born in a manger, wrapped in swaddling. There were few stables and they knew every one.
Prophets and kings had dreamed of seeing this day, but God declared joy with the light of His glory to these select few outside of Jesus’ immediate family.
It was a good thing, too. Because the young family soon had to flee for their lives before an enraged tyrant when word got out. It was a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ultimate mission of sacrifice for our sins. The rich and powerful, upon hearing the news, set out to kill him. And they eventually would.
Hollywood would much prefer to move the story to Central Park in New York City where Jesus could be born in a horse-drawn carriage, in the snow. Or in front of Macy’s with elves instead of angels surrounded by brightly lit merchandise instead of glory. With possibly some time travel and another princess. The Movie version would end with a kiss.
But in God’s greater story, Christmas is just the beginning, the opening scene on a hero’s journey like none other. The gift He gave us cannot be bought. The final chapter is still being written in hearts today. And good tidings of great joy are still being spread to ALL people.
But most especially to the least of us who need it most.
