‘Tis the season...bright lights, nativities, carols, presents, Santa, family gatherings, and of course, its time to gather everyone around the television and put on your favorite Christmas movies. You know, the ones that you just have to watch every year even though you’ve seen them a hundred times. The holiday season would be woefully incomplete without a viewing of the likes of White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story, It’s a Wonderful Life, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Christmas Vacation, Elf - and two of my favorites, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
What’s that? Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings aren’t on your Christmas movie list. Well, let me tell you, they should be. The fact is, that the tension, adventure and cosmic conflict depicted between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, and between Frodo Baggins and Gollum and the Dark forces of Lord Sauron have much more in common with the original Christmas story than any of the most popular holiday movies.
The coming of the Christ-child was shrouded in long journeys, supernatural visitations, murder, deception, flights at night to foreign countries, and mysterious prophecies of both victory and doom. The entire context of the story of the birth of Jesus is one of Cosmic Conflict between the forces of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil.
In fact the first words in the Bible regarding the coming of the Savior were spoken by God in the Garden of Eden to Satan himself (who had taken the form of a serpent) after Adam and Eve had been deceived. They were words of conflict. Prophetically speaking of the coming of Jesus, God says to Satan…
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel,” (Genesis 3:15).
Then, in the beginning of his gospel, the Apostle John says regarding the coming of Christ…
“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it,” (John 1:4-5).
That sure sounds a whole lot more like Star Wars than White Christmas to me.
But here’s the point. Unlike Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings, the coming of Christ isn’t a sci-fi fairy tale simply meant to intrigue and entertain us. And, unlike all the Christmas movies mentioned above, Jesus’ coming was certainly not a “feel good” moment. Rather, the birth of Christ and his eventual death and resurrection, and his promised, victorious return, all point to the fact that we live each day of our lives in the midst of a spiritual battle between light and dark, good and evil. Christmas has cosmic connotations for our very souls and for the future of our planet.
So, this Christmas season, while we revel in the joy of the season, let’s make sure we reflect on the source and cost of that joy, and that we have “joined forces” with the one who warned and promised,
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world,” (John 16:33).
Merry Christmas,
Pastor Scott