Christian Chaff
Would Jesus Be Santa or Kill Santa?
by Clay Staggs
In the Christmas spirit, I’m offering up two simply unbelievable intersections of Jesus and Santa Claus. The second is definitely by Christians; the first by someone I believe to be a Christian, because when he was interviewed, he said that Christmas was supposed to be about Jesus, which I doubt a non-believer would be saying these days. So assuming that we’re dealing with Christians all around, here are two commentaries on Jesus and Santa:
Yes, you are seeing Jesus holding a double barrel shotgun, having just shot Santa Claus. You can read the full report, complete with video, here. The creator of this display, who claims it to be a work of art, intends it to be a commentary on how Christmas has been commercialized.
Now, before offering any comment on this, I’ll offer the contrast of the second item:
That gem was found on a local church’s signboard. (Increasingly, I think that the best thing that government could do for the church would be to ban these signboards, stopping Christians from saying things that make them look like morons.)
OK, so here we have two vastly different views of Jesus and Santa. On the one hand, Jesus is popping a cap in Santa and on the other, Jesus sort of becomes Santa, complete with the list of naughty and nice. Poor Santa just can’t win, can he?
Really, what this proves to me is how utterly the church writ large has failed to comprehend Jesus, despite having the Scriptures and thousands of years of learning about them. Of the two, I think that the signboard actually displays the worse misapprehension. The implication of Jesus having a list and checking it twice is that he’s going to find out who’s a good little boy - getting salvation in his stocking - and who’s been a bad boy - getting a lump of Satan’s coal in his. So to be saved, you’d better be good, for goodness sake!
This is works righteousness taken to its logical conclusion. How this squares with anything Jesus ever said to a pharisee, anything Paul ever wrote - indeed, with the entirety of Scripture is lost on me. What the Bible actually teaches is that we are all desperately wicked, despite any of man’s outer appearances of being good little boys and girls. Of course, for the modern American church, this is unpalatable in the extreme. So instead, it transforms Christ into jolly old St. Nick, allowing its members the illusion of working their way off the naughty list and onto the nice list. But really, Santa is much less threatening that the Christ of the scriptures, isn’t he?
All of which brings me to the dead Santa scene. This one actually caused me to have several different reactions, because, unlike the signboard, there is an element of truth to this guy’s point. No one can reasonably dispute that Christmas has been commercialized to obscene extremes. Also, it is true that Jesus is going to ultimately judge the world and will destroy such things.
That said, it seems that the guy who created this is missing several pretty important points. As a Christian, one should understand that the commercialization of Christmas springs from our completely self-centered, greedy, depraved natures as humans. Would taking out Santa stop that? I realize that Santa may be seen as a symbol for such, but I don’t think it’s obvious that this was the intent of the guy who set this up. He clearly rails against commercialization, but that’s the symptom, not the disease.
Also, I don’t think that the image of Jesus with a shotgun is exactly the way to convey either divine displeasure with commercialization or the way judgment will be carried out. The shotgun implies a very human vigilante-style justice, which is a far cry from the perfect judgment that will be carried out at the last day.
Taking both pieces together, though, it strikes me that the modern church must really be lacking for understanding of Jesus to try relating him to Santa Claus. Maybe the ones who need to get back to the true meaning of Christmas aren’t all the pagans around us, but church itself.
Posted by Clay Staggs at December 19, 2009 10:59 AM
A few random thoughts…
Perhaps in trying to relate to & become sensitive to seekers, many have become seekers themselves.
The ‘John Wayne/Vigilante’ Jesus is an amazing picture from American society. Although I like it better than the effeminate, powerless Jesus, both pictures are predominately wrong- focusing on one facet of God and ignoring the rest- mainly because the whole is incomprehensible, I suppose.
This is why representations of Christ in the arts or in culture generally must be carefully considered and observed in the light that all representations are at best, incomplete and, at worst, anti-Biblical.This is from a Christian creator’s perspective. The pagans, of course, are not bound in this regard.
This is also what happens, though, when the preaching/teaching of the Gospel is abandoned. You can fill in the replacement with any current cultural, political or personal idol….