The Grinch That Tried To Steal Christmas

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.