25 Dec The Grinch, the Nutcracker, Scrooge! They’re All (partly) True!
There are five fundamental elements of a story.
1. A hero who is good.
2. A villain who is bad.
3. A conflict between the two.
4. The hero wins the conflict.
5. The hero lives happily ever after.
The interesting thing is, these five elements outline the story of human existence.
1. You have God who is good, and creates Adam and Eve, who are good.
2. You have Satan who is bad, and deceives Adam and Eve into sinning.
3. The forces of good and the forces of evil do battle throughout the entire history of humanity, with some people choosing God’s side, and some people choosing Satan’s side.
4. God and redeemed humanity triumph.
5. Redeemed humanity lives with God happily ever after.
When we look at it this way, there is one ultimate story. We’ll call it The Great Story. And all lesser stories reflect the elements of The Great Story.
So The Grinch, the Nutcracker, and Scrooge, are all true, not in the sense that they are historically accurate, but in the sense that they reflect truth from The Great Story.
The Grinch
The story of the Grinch is about a bitter, grouchy, green cave-dwelling monster with a heart “two sizes too small” who lives on snowy Mount Crumpit, a steep high mountain just north of Whoville, home of the merry and warm-hearted Whos. From his cave, the Grinch can hear the noisy Christmas festivities that take place in Whoville, and he hates noise!
So, to get even, he decides to stop Christmas from coming – by stealing their presents, trees, and food for their Christmas feast. He disguises himself as Santa Claus, and forces his dog, disguised as a reindeer, to drag a sleigh to Whoville, where he slides down the chimney and steals all of the Whos’ Christmas presents, the Christmas trees and their food.
Then the Grinch takes his sleigh to the top of Mount Crumpit, and prepares to toss all of the presents into the abyss. As dawn breaks, he expects to hear the Whos crying in loud disappointment, but instead hears them singing Christmas songs. Happy, joy-filled Christmas songs. He puzzles for a moment until it dawns on him: “Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means a little bit more.”
The Grinch’s heart grew three sizes that day. He returned the presents and food and even joined in the celebration of Christmas.
So… what does the Grinch borrow from The Great Story? Well, the fact that true meaning in life does not come from things, but from relationships. That the true meaning of Christmas doesn’t come from outside, but comes from inside. That, when we get in touch with the true meaning of Christmas, it takes away our selfishness and puts us in touch with other people.
The Nutcracker
In The Nutcracker, a young girl, Clara is given a nutcracker at a Christmas Eve party. That night, after the party ends, Clara, falls asleep near the Christmas tree with the nutcracker in her arms.
As the clock strikes midnight, strange things begin to happen. The toys around the tree come to life while the room fills with an army of mice, led by the fierce and evil Mouse King. The Nutcracker awakens and leads his army of toy soldiers into battle with the mice. The Mouse King is eventually defeated.
Then magically, the Nutcracker turns into a Prince and takes Clara on a journey to the Land of Snow and the Land of Sweets where they have a magical time.
Clara awakens from her dream and finds herself by her Christmas tree with the prince transformed back into a Nutcracker, and she muses on the gift of a magical and wonderful Christmas Eve.
What the Nutcracker borrows from The Great Story is that life involves a battle between good and evil… and that in the end, good wins, and great reward and celebration follow the triumph of good over evil.
There’s a thrill of victory, a capacity for joy when the battle is won, an inspiration for celebration that is greater than could ever be experienced if the battle had never been fought. Danger, sacrifice, and effort are the source of true joy, gratitude and celebration.
Scrooge
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol begins: “Old Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.”
It is a story about two business partner skinflints, Marley and Scrooge, who are so selfish and self-absorbed that they had each other and their money… and nothing else. Then, one Christmas Eve, Marley, who had been dead for years, came back and visited Scrooge at his apartment during his dark, solitary dinner, to convince Scrooge to change his ways before it is too late. Marley was weighted with an enormous heavy chain wound about his body that dragged him down. Marley said he forged his chain in life through selfish deeds, and was now condemned to drag it through eternity.
Marley warned Scrooge that he – Scrooge – was forging an identical invisible chain around himself, and that that he would carry that chain through eternity when his time came to depart from the earth, unless he amended his ways.
Marley left and Scrooge fell asleep. At midnight, he was visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, and was given the privilege of seeing how his actions in life were affecting people around him, as well as his life to come.
Scrooge repents! He gives his life over to goodness, and is transformed, from the inside out. And he became as gooda man as he had been a badman.
So, what does this story borrow from The Great Story? Well, it borrows the truth that how we live affects others and ourselves in this life, and it affects us in the next life. It borrows the truth that when we see the temporal in light of the eternal, everything changes. It puts us in touch with reality.
It borrows the fact that we can change, that we can be transformed, and be better off and happier than before. And it borrows the fact that when we get our lives straightened out in this world, we need not fear the next.
Conclusion
In The Great Story, Jesus, the baby in the manger, is the Son of God who came to earth to be born as a human. His birth is the first bookend of salvation. His death and resurrection are the second bookend. The baby came for the purpose of eventually dying for our sin, so that if we believe in Him by faith, and receive Him as the God of our lives, our sin and death can be placed on Him, and His righteousness and eternal life can be placed on us. In Jesus, the battle between good and evil is won, and God’s redeemed children live with Him forever in heaven.
That’s why the Great Story is worth celebrating every year. We do not just honor the baby. We don’t just remember the baby. We don’t just imitate the baby. With the wise men, we worship Him, Immanuel, God with us!
I wish you all a very blessed and Merry Christmas as you celebrate Jesus and the Great Story this year!
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