| Begin or End each week with a Meaningful Inspiration. |
"Merry Christmas" - This Means War!by Tim Knappenberger |
The Star; the Holy Family; the
toddler Jesus; the tender Madonna; the Magi; the gifts of gold, incense and myrrh; and the
slaughter of the babies. Whoa! Wait just a minute! What kind of sick-o are you?! What are
you trying to do to my Nativity reverie!?! Well actually, nothing. Nothing, that is, other
than telling the whole story. Anyone who’s even vaguely familiar with the Christmas story is aware of this seemingly aberrant footnote to the account of Jesus’ birth. It fits in with all of the other warm and soft Christmas imagery about as well as a hair-sprouting wart on the tip of Mona Lisa’s nose. It’s not a detail of the Savior’s advent that we eagerly retell to our own children again and again. For the most part, we read through it and move on as quickly as we can. If we do pause to consider how it does or doesn’t "fit" into the larger story, we all too often end up just shaking our heads and lamenting about the insane cruelty of man against man. Life confronts us with many issues upon which we ponder, but there remains a select few we keep coming back to again and again. Issues with which we particularly struggle in attempts to understand and make sense of. Death is one. Suffering another. And Evil. The Christmas story contains all three. It’s not hard for even the most adamant of agnostics to be drawn to the many icons of Christmas evoking love, mercy, and tenderness. Nevertheless, the real Christmas is more about warfare and battle than lullabies and carols. Or as C.S. Lewis pens; the Savior's "invasion" and His confrontation with the forces of evil . Never ever forget; Jesus’ long awaited incarnation was the loudest "cannon volley" ever heard in the realms of spiritual combat. What God ordained in the Garden was now here. Satan’s uncontested reign of fear, pain, suffering and death was about to be wrestled away and he wasn’t about to give up without a fight. Christmas is marked by numerous contrasts: stars and swords; majestic kingly visitations and twisted kingly agitation; The Light breaking into the dark; angels conversing with shepherds; the children who die, and the Child who gets away;. Mary rejoicing, Rachel weeping. Every contrast represents pitched battle; blow and counter-blow. What does one say to the mothers of those boys? Their deaths made no sense: What did they have to do with earthly thrones and messianic expectations?
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| 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found
out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
"Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me,
so that I too may go and worship him." 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go
back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. 13 When they had gone, an
angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take
the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is
going to search for the child to kill him." 14 So he got up, took the child and his
mother during the night and left for Egypt, 16 When Herod realized that he had been
outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in
Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time
he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was
fulfilled: 18 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping
for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." (Matthew 2:7-18 - NIV) |
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Send a note to Tim Knappenberger at: knapp@raex.com
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ŠTim Knappenberger