Santa Claus: Harmless Fun or Tragic Distraction
00:00:00.000 | We've never been afraid of ruffling feathers on the podcast. And as we move into the epicenter
00:00:05.600 | of the Christmas season, that's good because no APJ question is more common this time of year
00:00:10.320 | than questions over what Christian parents should do with Santa Claus. What should we do with old
00:00:16.400 | Saint Nick, Pastor John? It's been asked of us over 70 times now in the APJ inbox.
00:00:22.240 | Every year, this question comes up over and over again. Now, of course, Pastor John,
00:00:27.680 | as you know, there's a fourth century Greek historical figure named Saint Nicholas,
00:00:31.600 | but most of the questions, in fact, I think all 70 of those questions that we have received are
00:00:36.960 | all about the mythic, white bearded, red suited reindeer flying Santa Claus, that guy.
00:00:41.600 | And James from Ontario recently wrote in to ask us, Pastor John, what do you think about
00:00:48.160 | Christian parents who allow their children to believe Santa Claus is bringing them gifts on
00:00:52.640 | Christmas? Cut it straight for us, Pastor John. What do you say about Santa this time of year?
00:00:58.960 | After Easter, Christmas should be the happiest day of the year in Christian worship.
00:01:03.360 | The reason I say after Easter is that Good Friday and Easter is the goal of Christmas.
00:01:11.200 | The death and resurrection, the salvation of sinners through the death and resurrection of
00:01:15.360 | Jesus is the goal of Christmas. Christmas is not the goal of Easter. Christmas is a means
00:01:21.600 | the salvation of sinners on Good Friday and Easter is the goal. Jesus came at Christmas
00:01:27.200 | to seek and save the lost. Luke 19. Jesus came at Christmas to save sinners. 1 Timothy 1.15.
00:01:34.960 | Jesus came at Christmas to give his life a ransom for many. Mark 10. Jesus came at Christmas not to
00:01:41.120 | call the righteous but sinners. Matthew 9. Jesus came at Christmas to destroy the works of the
00:01:45.920 | devil. 1 John 3. Jesus came at Christmas that through death he might destroy the one who has
00:01:51.760 | the power of death. Hebrews 2.14. So the birth of the Son of God, the very God, very man is simply
00:01:58.880 | stunning and glorious and infinitely serious and overflowing with happy news. The angel called it
00:02:05.440 | good news of great joy. Great joy. Not small joy, not a little bit of joy, but great joy.
00:02:13.200 | So my question is this. How could we possibly even think of giving our children a bowl of bland,
00:02:22.720 | sugarless porridge when they are offered the greatest meal in the world? Why would we give
00:02:30.400 | them Santa Claus when they can have the incarnation of the Son of God? I mean, it's just mind-boggling
00:02:38.560 | to me that any Christian would even contemplate such a trade, that we would divert attention away
00:02:45.840 | from the incarnation of the God of the universe into this world to save us and our children in
00:02:52.800 | order to—I mean, I can scarcely have words for it, that people would contemplate this.
00:03:00.640 | Not only is Santa Claus not true, and Jesus is very truth himself, but compared to Jesus,
00:03:09.280 | Santa is simply pitiful, and our kids should be helped to see this. Santa Claus offers
00:03:15.920 | only earthly things, nothing lasting, nothing eternal. Jesus offers eternal joy with the world
00:03:23.920 | thrown in. Yeah, the fire engine is thrown in. Santa Claus offers his ephemeral goodies only
00:03:31.440 | on the condition of good works. He knows when you are bleep. He knows when you've been bad or good
00:03:36.240 | to be good, for goodness sakes. That's a pure works religion. And Jesus offers himself all the
00:03:41.440 | gifts freely by grace for faith. Santa Claus is make-believe. Jesus is more real than the roof
00:03:50.400 | on your house. Santa Claus, he only shows up once a year. Jesus promises, "I'll be with you always."
00:03:57.920 | You say to your kid, "Every night, every night, he's standing by your bed. He's with you when
00:04:02.880 | you get up in the morning. He's with you when you go to school today. If mommy and daddy die,
00:04:07.040 | he will be right there with you." Santa doesn't hold a candle to this flaming Jesus. Santa Claus
00:04:15.120 | cannot solve our worst problem. And Jesus did solve our worst problem, our sin and our alienation
00:04:20.720 | from God. Santa Claus, he can put some icing on the cake of the good life, but he cannot take a
00:04:27.280 | shattered life and rebuild it with hope forever. And our kids need to know that about Christmas.
00:04:33.520 | Santa Claus is not relevant in many cultures of the world. And Jesus is the King of kings and
00:04:39.920 | Lord of lords in all the peoples of the world. Santa Claus will be forgotten someday, and Jesus
00:04:45.680 | will be the same yesterday, today, and forever. So, Tony, there is no contest here. So I cannot
00:04:54.000 | see why a parent, if they know and love Jesus, if they have found Jesus to be the greatest treasure
00:05:00.960 | in the world, why they would bring Jesus out of the celebration and Santa into the celebration
00:05:08.960 | at all? I mean, he's just irrelevant. He has nothing to do with it. He's zero.
00:05:13.120 | So my counsel is to give all your efforts to making your children as happy as they can possibly be
00:05:19.760 | with every kind of surprise that is rooted in the true meaning of Christmas.
00:05:24.480 | Let your decorations point to Jesus. Let your food point to Jesus. Let your games point to Jesus. Let
00:05:32.000 | your singing point to Jesus. Out rejoice the world, out give the world, out decorate the world,
00:05:38.160 | and let it all point to Jesus. If being Jesus-focused is a killjoy for your Christmas,
00:05:47.600 | you don't know him well. Wow. A little abrasive, but necessarily so. Also valuable and edifying.
00:05:56.080 | Thank you, Pastor John, for putting these thoughts together. And coming up on Wednesday,
00:06:00.400 | we're going to hear from a listener with a really simple, but it's a question I don't
00:06:03.760 | think we've ever received in the inbox before. It's simply this, "Pastor John, what is your
00:06:08.880 | favorite hymn?" I'll ask him on Wednesday because you asked. You can email your own questions to us
00:06:15.600 | via our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. I'm your host Tony Ranke. We'll see you on Wednesday.
00:06:23.920 | you
00:06:24.000 | DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn
00:06:26.000 | DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn
00:06:28.000 | DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn
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