Christmas War

Christmas carols are a big part of our celebration and worship at this time of year, as they ought to be. We are familiar with the songs of worship and praise, such as “Joy to the World” and “Angels, We Have Heard on High,” along with it’s exuberant refrain of “Gloria! In excelsis Deo!” We weep over the tender, intimate carols, such as “Silent Night” and “O Holy Night,” as we light candles and sit close to those we love. And we marvel over the melodies that invite us to partake of the Christ Child and invite Him into our hearts and lives, such as “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “The Little Drummer Boy.”

Yet Christmas is not all tenderness and majesty. It is also a declaration of war.

You likely know the Christmas story inside out. The angels’ made their announcement to Mary and their confirmation to Joseph. The betrothed couple traveled to Bethlehem where the Christ child was born in a manger. Angels sang. Shepherds came. Wise men brought gifts eventually. Herod raged. God protected. We’ve heard this account since childhood. You probably can even quote large portions of Luke 2 from memory.

But why did humanity need Christmas at all? What necessitated the incarnation of God Himself? Why did He choose to leave the splendor and glory of heaven and perfection and come to this hateful, defiled earth?

It was sin. My sin and yours.

It was also love. His love for us.

And it was the fulfillment of prophecy and promise. God promised to send a Messiah—One who would free mankind from the burden of sin and provide a way to be reconciled to God. Thus, our Creator also became our Father, our Brother, our Savior.

Therefore, the stereo-typical message of Christmas is peace, joy, and goodwill toward men. That’s what the angels announced, right? But when we look about us, what we actually see is the world plunging toward war, disease, economic instability, depravity, and death. The friction between what was promised and what is tangible can cause disillusionment in the heart of even the strongest Believer.

Lindsey Brigham Knott put it so eloquently: “It’s a familiar tension of our experience of Christmas that, somehow, this celebration at which we most long for comfort, fellowship, harmony, security, rest, abundance, and joy often collides with our sharpest confrontations of grief, loneliness, discord, vulnerability, agitation, lack, and dismay—each of these, in their painfully particular ways, confrontations with sin and sin’s curse, death. And perhaps, wearying of the yearly disillusionment, we finally retreat before sin’s last offensive, despair, and conclude that the promised peace was at best a metaphor, at worst a lie.”

That contradiction keeps many a soul from ever darkening the door of the church, and it sends many a saint stomping out the doors, never to return. But J Sidlow Baxter, the Australian-born pastor, evangelist, and author says, “If there is to be peace, goodwill, prosperity on earth, there must be glory to God in the highest first.” And bringing stubborn, prideful humans to that point requires all-out war.

What Christmas carols about war do you know? I didn’t know any. Until, recently, I heard “This Little Babe” by Benjamin Britten. It’s nothing like most of our carols. It’s short, discordant, and aggressive. But it’s meant to portray the battle that baby Jesus came to fight—and win. Here are the words, because it’s very difficult to catch them all in the video. If you are like me, you might need to look up a few definitions to fully understand the import of the song.

This little babe, so few days old, Is come to rifle Satan’s fold; All hell doth at His presence quake. Though He Himself for cold do shake, For in this weak unarmèd wise The gates of hell He will surprise.

With tears he fights and wins the field; His naked breast stands for a shield; His battering shot are babish cries, His arrows looks of weeping eyes, His martial ensigns cold and need, And feeble flesh His warrior’s steed.

His camp is pitchèd in a stall, His bulwark but a broken wall, The crib His trench, hay stalks His stakes, Of shepherds He His muster makes; And thus, as sure His foe to wound, The angels’ trumps alarum sound.

My soul, with Christ join thou in fight; Stick to the tents that He hath pight; Within His crib is surest ward, This little babe will be thy guard. If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy, Then flit not from this heavenly Boy.

Benjamin Britten, “This Little Babe”

It only takes a shift in perspective to see what’s really happening. Those who recognize the hope and peace offered in the Christmas story are viewing life through eternal lenses, rather than the short-term glass of the present age, which is still full of the struggle to overcome. As bifocals allow the wearer to see things both far and near, we need spiritual bifocals to fully understand Christmas.

What we fail to recognize is that baby Jesus in the manger is not the end of the story. Rather, He is God’s announcement that the war has begun. Satan and sin are rendered powerless, the grave is opened, and evil is defeated. The battle has been imminent since Adam and Eve made their fateful choice in the Garden and God’s subsequently gave His promise: “I will put enmity between thee (serpent) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Gen. 3:15)

That promised seed of the woman was Jesus Christ, God incarnate. That’s why Satan flew into a frenzy at the angels’ announcements and the shepherds’ worship. That’s why he prompted Herod to kill all the male babies. On the surface, that may have seemed to be about Herod’s vanity, but it was really about the age-long battle for control over the souls of mankind. Satan realized that God was on the march, turning the wheels of time and circumstance to His favor, and deploying His Soldier for that ultimate battle at Calvary.

Satan knew he would lose, but that didn’t stop him from trying to thwart his enemy. God knew He would win, and Satan’s futile tactics did nothing to stop His advance.

As you look about you this Christmas, perhaps you see more carnage, destruction, and sorrow than peace, joy, and goodwill to men. Don’t give up. Cling to hope and the promises of God. Keep Christ first in your heart. This battle will end with victory for those who are on God’s side—no more sin, no more sickness, no more sorrow. Only light and love and fellowship with God for all eternity.

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