You better watch out? (Santa, Part 1 of 4)

"You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I'm telling you why...Santa Clause is coming to town."

What do we celebrate on Christmas?  This is the first question we must ask.  Christmas is a time we celebrate the birth of our sweet savior, Jesus Christ.  The world awaited his coming, and this is the day we worship Him.  We praise Him, for in His grace and mercy he humbled himself to leave his heavenly home, take on flesh, so he could one day die in our place for our sins.  What a glorious time to celebrate!  How can this be, that Jesus has done this for me...for you...

But I turn on the radio and hear lyrics such as one one above and cringe.  This song is teaching us to primarily worry about actions.  Are you jealous?  Well just don't pout about it...keep it to yourself.  Are you mad?  Don't cry and make a scene about it.  This is completely counter to what Jesus teaches.  Jesus is after the heart, not merely actions.  The issue is not the pouting, but the jealousy that caused it.  He is not after externally moral creatures...for if he was he would not have so viciously attacked the Pharisees.  Jesus is after the heart.  In a marriage, a husband desires his wife to truly love him, not just do things for him out of obligation...and Jesus is the same way.  He doesn't want merely actions, he wants a heart of love.  This is why Jesus motivates not from fear (if you aren't good you get coal), but love (you aren't good, but I love you) Don't let Santa influence to try to be perceived a certain way.  Let Jesus motivate you to BE a certain way. 


[The Santa series intent is to help us think deeply about the things we celebrate and do.  Since Santa is a deeply ingrained tradition in most households, this blog series will unintentionally pinch some nerves inside you.  This is not the intention.  The intention is to have us think Biblically about everything, which is increasingly more difficult in our culture.  The things addressed in this series are not just issues seen at Christmas, rather I am using Santa and this season to bring to light a general worldview our culture bombards us with.]