Faith Matters: At the first Christmas, God gave us the gift of Jesus. Even if we didn’t deserve it
Every Christmas season parents across the country threaten their children to behave. If they choose not to, their stocking will contain the much feared lump of coal. It’s an interesting threat and one that seems to have very little teeth. Having received this threat for a good portion of 1980’s, my parents failed to follow through. But it did get me thinking: when did it become acceptable to threaten misbehaving children with fossilized dinosaur flesh as a Christmas gift? The answer takes us way back.
The Netherlands have “Zwart Piete” or “Black Pete” who actually brings the lumps of coal to bad children. Evidently kids would receive gifts in their shoes which were laid by the fire the night before. Coal was a regular source of heat for homes, so it was an easy and handy substitute for “Black Pete.”
Other parts of Europe have some characters who use even more questionable means to drive children into good behavior. “Belshnickle” for example, is a black bearded man who carries switches to beat bad children. And “Krumpus” is the half goat half demon assistant to Santa who whips children into being nice with a chain. If that doesn’t, work he then hauls the bad kids down to the Netherworld. This guy gives a whole new meaning to “Santa’s little helper.”
For nearly a millennium, parents have been trying to coerce good behavior out of their children by threatening bad gifts.
God doesn’t act that way. Instead of threatening us with a bad gift for our bad behavior, He gave us a good gift. If God had waited till we were good enough to give us Jesus, we would still be waiting. The gift of the baby in the manger came, not because we were good enough, but for exactly the opposite reason; we couldn’t be good enough.
2 Corinthians 5:21 isn’t a verse normally read at Christmas, but it very much applies. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Our bad behavior, our rebellion, and our sin were placed on the shoulders of Jesus at the cross. While having no sin of his own, he took ours. While having no righteousness of our own, we took His. It was the most unbalanced trade in all of history. We get life; he gets death. And the crazy thing about the Christmas story is that God never said we had to change our behavior in order to get this gift. The very reason He offers the gift of salvation is because we can’t change without Him.
No amount of threats or punishment can change our rebellious hearts and sinful desires. Not the threat of coal; not the threat of being beaten with switches; not even the threat of mean ole Krumpus. God’s grace is what we need. And grace is what He gave! Merry Christmas!
Phillip Hamm is the senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Palmetto.
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Faith Matters: At the first Christmas, God gave us the gift of Jesus. Even if we didn’t deserve it."