As I sat in my living room during one Christmas holiday, I remember watching with my family the story of “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.” And this played over and over in my mind, how this was not just a cartoon, but this was reality. Trying not to spoil our family time, as I sat there and thought about how many times, I’ve had to endure those who have tried to steal Christmas from us.
The Grinch hated Christmas! He hated the whole Christmas season! Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason why. It could be his head wasn’t screwed on just right. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were tight. But I think that the most likely reasons of all, may have been that his heart was two sizes too small, and he thought no one liked him.
But, whatever the reason was, rather his heart or his shoes He stood there on Christmas Eve, hating those who he seen down from his cave with a sour, bitter look. Grinchy frowned at the warm lighted windows below in their town. What’s so amazing to me is that he knew everyone who lived down in Who Ville. He knew everyone that were beneath his cave who was busy hanging mistletoe, wreath’s and setting up their Christmas trees.
As they were hanging their stockings! He snarled with a sneer
“Tomorrow is Christmas! It’s practically here!” Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming with thought in mind “I MUST find some way to stop Christmas coming!”
And it seems like Christmas has always had that kind of effect on some people. Even in our present age, Christmas is so disliked by some people like the ACLU who has threatened people with lawsuits if there’s is any mention of Christ in the season of Christmas.
Not so long ago, Broward County (Florida) Calvary Chapel church were told that they could not include the words: “Jesus is the Reason for the
Season” in their Christmas display. So, it is said that the church filed a suit in the U.S. District Court claiming they had the right to display the words. The Judge William Zloch agreed with their freedom of speech argument, and allowed them to keep the words in their display as long as they included the words, “Calvary Chapel says,” “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.”
Even though 90% of Americans celebrate Christmas, and even though Christianity is the largest religious group in the nation, “Jesus” has been repeatedly forced into the closet during this season. So much so that the very word “Merry Christmas” has been removed from the season and replaced by the term “Happy Holidays” of XMAS.
Just recently I read about a school in Chicago – which recently staged their holiday program celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa… but they excluded any reference to Christ and the Christmas story.
Can I tell you that there’s something about the story of the birth of Christ that creates animosity But what?
It is said that James Martin while in the upper room on a trip to the Holy Land, bought a nativity set for his Sunday School class. It was carved out of olive wood in Bethlehem itself; the display had all of the traditional figures like sheep, oxen, wise men, shepherds, Mary and Joseph and of course, the baby Jesus.
So, on the return trip home, the security at Tel Aviv airport was very strict about imports and exports. And he was thinking they wouldn’t have any trouble with a little nativity set; But they did. Each figure was carefully scrutinized, and even taken away for x-ray examination. The security officer said “we must make sure there is nothing explosive in them, but what they didn’t know was there is always something explosive in the story of Jesus. Because, when we look at the text we will see that King Herod made sure of this, King Herod made sure that there was an explosion that was rock the world.
You see Herod was the King of the land of Israel in the day when Jesus was born. But he wasn’t the King by birth right, because he wasn’t even an Israelite, he was an Edomite. And he was ruler of the land only because Rome had given him that throne.
And he called himself “the Great” and in some ways he was a “great king.” Because:
He had doubled the size of the Temple.
Built numerous palaces and fortified them.
He kept the area of Palestine relatively peaceful with its neighbors.
And when a famine had devastated Israel, he purchased food for his starving people with his own money from his own treasury.
But King Herod a problem even though he was a successful, wealthy, and a compassionate king, yet he was upset with a baby being born in Bethlehem? He was so upset, that he was willing to slaughter every child in this village to make sure he had destroyed that one single, what he thought was a helpless child.
You see, Herod had a reputation for being jealous, and he wanted to protect his power and his position. Just like people today, they feel like they have to protect there little positions, but when you are doing what you are suppose to do God will protect you.
What this: he was so protected that when his 16 year old brother-in-law tried to make a name for himself Herod held the boy’s head under water until he died.
What this: Years later, one of his many wives, became involved in a plot to have her family rise to power, now even though he loved her deeply, he still had her executed.
A couple of years before his death, he heard rumors that two of his sons, were engaged in a plot to kill him – he had them executed. It was so tragic that after hearing of that last incident, Caesar Augustus commented: “It is safer to be Herod’s pig, than to be one of Herod’s son.”
Herod’s main motivation in life was to “stay in control”. And anything or anyone that threatened this authority had too face his wrath. He would do anything in his power to destroy whatever endangered his ability to stay in control.
Herod’s motivation goes to the heart of why so many other people oppose Christmas. People embrace Kwanzaa which is a celebration created by and for the black community today. They’ll embrace Hanukkah a religious holiday celebrated by the Jewish community. But let someone bring up the story of Jesus. And the first thing that they would say is there you go with all of that Jesus stuff. But what else am I supposed to talk about when I was created to serve him, created to worship him and him alone?
Can I tell you that people who have a problem with baby Jesus, they have a heart problem? If you remember the words in the story of the Grinch, remember that His heart was 2 sizes too small.
Herod’s heart was too small for anyone other than himself to rule in his life. There was no room for nobody but him.
And that’s why so many others reject Christ. Because if they were to acknowledge him as the Christ, then they would have too also acknowledge Him to be what the Christmas story says that He is and would be.
And they would have had to acknowledge that Jesus had a right to their hearts and minds. But there’s no room in their hearts for that message or the messenger. There’s no room in their hearts for God to reign.
There is only room in there heart for themselves I believe that their hearts are too small.
And that’s why many of the Christmas carols we sing today are so often offensive to non-Christians. Because we give too much thought to those words we sing, because often time, they soothe our doubts and they calm all of our fears and that’s why we sing song like:
O’ come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O’ come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him born the King of angels.
O’ come let us adore Him, o come let us adore Him,
O’ come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.
We sing Hark! The herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled."
Joyful, all ye nations, rise, Join the triumph of the skies;
With angelic hosts proclaim, "Christ is born in Bethlehem."
Hark! The herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King."
These are the kind of songs that would make our toes curls; these are the kind of songs that would make tears run out of our eyes. These are the kind of song that gives us hope, inspiration, promise, and expectation.
Because these Christmas Carols declare the divinity of Christ and they literally shout out that Jesus is the Son of God, born to be the King of our lives and the KING of the lives of others as well.
But King Herod was not trying to hear all of that; all he knew was his kingdom was at risk. This was a chance that he was not willing to take.
The bible says in verse 1, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, 2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and we are come to worship him. 3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them to tell him where Christ should be born,
and somebody told him, he will be born in Bethlehem of Judaea.
So, the record is that he called a private meeting with the wise men and said look a here, whenever you find this baby boy come back and let me know that I may come and worship him.
But what I love about God is that he will always give us insight to what going on, because God knew that he wanted to kill his only begotten son, God knew that he wanted to take our bread in a starving land from us, God knew that he wanted to steal Christmas from us.
So, the spirit of God told them, look after you have found baby Jesus go back to your own country.
What I love about God is that he will also give us a warning. The Bible said that God came to Joseph in a dream and said get and go to Egypt and stay there until I bring you a word, because Herod seek to kill the young child.
And when Herod found out that the wise men had went on there way, he sent the orders out to kill every child that is in Bethlehem from the ages two years old and down.
And I heard that they went on a killing spree, but what they didn’t know was God had already preserved our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, Herod tried to steal our Christmas and he didn’t succeed, Herod tried to ruin our celebration of Christ Jesus but he did achieve, and I’m here to tell somebody don’t let Herod steal your Christmas.
What do you mean preacher?
Don’t let them steal your joy, don’t let them steal your happiness, don’t let them steal your spirit of giving, and most of all don’t allow them steal Christ from your life, because there are those that will try steal your very peace.
Ana I’m reminded of a story about a burglar who broke into a house and began to steal all of the valuables that were in the house. And all of a sudden he heard a voice that said Jesus is watching you.
He was so scared he froze for a moment. He regained his composure and started stealing again, when the voice became louder and said Jesus is watching you. He just about lost all mind. But after regaining his composure, he began to steal again, but this time he was watching every thing around him when he heard the voice again, but this time he recognized a shape in the corner. As he approached the object he realized it was a bird cage. He removed the cover to find out that it a parrot.
He was so relieved when he saw the parrot, he said what is your name. The parrot replied my name is "Moses". The thief then said what kind of person would name a parrot Moses. The parrot replied the same kind of person that named a Rottweiler "Jesus".
And can I tell somebody here that Jesus is watching you.
He has his all-seeing eyes on you.
Please Saints don’t allow no-one to steal your Christmas, but most of all don’t allow them to steal Christ. Because he died that we might have life.
