A Christmas Peril

You’re likely familiar with the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge from 1843. Each year, the holiday classic penned by Charles Dickens is welcomed by many of us like an old friend. We know the story inside and out, and we’re well acquainted with Jacob Marley and the three ghosts. In the allegory, each successive Christmas Eve visitor brings Mr. Scrooge one step closer to understanding the error of his ways.
 
My fear for all of us is that this Christmas season will come and go, and that we will have missed its main message. That would be a tragedy if ever there were one.
 
So that we don’t miss the moment, and since my mind has already been transported to jolly old England, I think that I’ll share with you some of my favorite seasonal quotes from C.S. Lewis …
 
“The birth of Christ is the central event in the history of earth – the very thing the whole story has been about.”
 
“The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this. Just as every natural event is the manifestation at a particular place and moment of Nature’s total character, so every particular Christian miracle manifests at a particular place and moment the character and significance of the Incarnation.”
 
“Once in our world, a Stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.”
 
And, in his famous Mere Christianity, I contend that Mr. Lewis summed up the good news of Christmas in a single sentence: “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.”
 
Friends, this is the message of Christmas that I don’t want us to miss! It is significant. It is powerful. It is central. It is saving. Who cares about the eggnog and the colored lights and the music and the mistletoe if we miss the most important part of it all? THE WORD BECAME FLESH (John 1:14).
 
Now, back to the classic tale of Dickens. How does it all turn out? Quite thankfully, the Scrooge at the end of the story is not the same man as the Scrooge of the “Bah! Humbug!” He is a different person. He’s been transformed. For Ebenezer, everything has been made new, and he sees everything around him with entirely new eyes. Like all good literature, A Christmas Carol is a story of redemption. Isn’t it fascinating how many different instruments God uses to beckon our hearts to give serious consideration to those things which are of eternal worth?
 
Regarding the new Mr. Scrooge, in the words of Dickens: “He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough in the good old world.” Would that such goodness describe each one of us, not a goodness emanating from ourselves – but the very goodness of Jesus lived in us, through us, and in spite of us. In Christ’s own words: “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18).
 
You and I will never begin to live – to truly live – until we have been redeemed by the finished sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Cross connects the manger to the empty tomb! We must trust in Christ, and in Christ alone. To know and experience life in all its fullness, you and I must be transformed from the inside out. If the saving message of Christ’s gospel hasn’t yet made us new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), then we haven’t been listening with listening ears. It’s time for us to repent, and to – like Scrooge – walk in an entirely different direction. Jesus didn’t mince any words: “You must be born again” (John 3:7). We ignore His gracious yet direct words to our peril.
 
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”
 
Hark!
 
Pastor Charles