This
is one of those songs where the music and the lyrics are seemingly at
odds with each other. The music is very jolly
which makes it sound like it's a song of joy celebrating the imminent
arrival of Santa with “little tin horns and little toy drums, Rooty
toot toots and rummy tum tums...And curly head dolls...Elephants,
boats, and kiddie cars too”. On the other hand the lyrics are a
not-so-veiled threat aimed at children that if they don't behave
(even when they're sleeping!) they won't get those goodies. A similar
threat is heard daily from parents to their children: “if you don't
behave you won't get any presents!” although it is rarely, if ever,
carried out.
Santa, however, is
making a list of all those who are naughty and nice, although these
days he may be in contravention of GDPR by doing so. The tradition
of a figure that rewards good behaviour and punishes bad behaviour is
an old one, and is very useful for parents and other adults who want
a way to control children. The real St Nicholas, a fourth century
bishop from Greece, though, gave gifts not on the basis of behaviour
but need. The most well-known of his acts of kindness is when he
gave money to a penniless family so that the daughters could pay the
dowries necessary to marry, thus rescuing them from being forced into
prostitution. However, Nicholas is also alleged to have slapped
someone at the First Council of Nicaea in 325AD. This Council was a
gathering of bishops who discussed amongst other things the divinity
of Jesus; according to a later legend Nicholas slapped someone who
held the Arian belief that Jesus wasn't divine. So perhaps Santa
should be giving to alleviate suffering and punishing heresy!
Categorizing people as
good or bad is a very human trait, we love to put people into boxes
or label them, although we very rarely put ourselves into the 'bad'
category unless it's to say that we're a loveable rogue or too cool
to be good. And this also colours a lot of people's idea of what
happens when you die. After death, so this thinking goes, our life
will be judged. Our good deeds put on one side of some scales and
our bad deeds on the other. If our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds
we get the reward of heaven, but if our bad deeds outweigh our good
deeds we will be punished. This line of thinking usually also
believes that most people will get rewarded and only a few really bad
people (Hitler, Stalin etc.) will get punished.
I can't see why anyone
would want to be judged on this criteria. Jesus tells us that no-one
is good except God, and that being angry with someone is the same as
murder, and James writes “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet
stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). The pass mark for being 'good enough' for heaven is 100% and
none of us can get anywhere near that. So is there any hope? Yes,
because Christmas is about the coming of someone more exciting than
Santa and who has a more important list.
In the book of Revelation, John has visions of the spiritual realm
and he sees “Another book was opened, which is the book of life.
The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in
the books” (Revelation 20:12) and only those whose names are
written in the book of life will enter into God's presence for
eternity (Revelation 21:27). What are the deeds that have been done
by those whose names are written in the book of life? They have had
their sins forgiven through repentance and faith in Jesus (Revelation 3:5, 7:14 and 1:5). This Christmas, make sure your name is written
on the only list that matters: Jesus' book of life.
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