In two of our most beloved Christmas tales, there is a startling conversion of the main antagonists. They triumphantly move from villainous to heroic within the course of those narratives and in the process warm our hearts. Every Christmas we revisit these classic stories and every Christmas we cheer the conversions. It is great literature and entertainment, but perhaps it is even a little bit more.
Of course, these two stories are the enduring Charles Dicken’s tale of A Christmas Carol and the more recent Dr. Suess poem, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Both tell tales of miserable creatures made even more so by the dreaded Christmas season celebrated all around them, only to later to find joyful redemption—themselves fully embracing the spirit of Christmas.
“Humbug!”
Ebenezer Scrooge was a pitiful miser—greedily counting all of his riches but sharing none of them. Gruff, unkind, and utterly lacking compassion, he cut a wide swath through Christmas; grudgingly giving his one employee, Bob Cratchit, the holiday off and sharply rebuking those asking him for a donation to help the poor. His conversation with them as imagined by Dickens reveals his dismal soul:
“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentleman, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.” (They respond) “Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.” “If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, ‘they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
It doesn’t get much more heartless than this. But we know the rest of the story. The visit by Christmas spirits in the night that rocked Scrooge’s world, altered this outlook and changed him forever. With a lump in our throat, we celebrate with him as he awakens from the horrors of the Ghosts of Christmas, rushes to open his window to discover it was still Christmas morning—giving him the opportunity to shock his world by spreading his own generous Christmas goodwill, which ultimately found its voice in the famous words of Tiny Tim: “God bless us everyone.”
Dickens would perfectly capture old Scrooge’s conversion with this line: “And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”
“You’re a Mean One”
According to Dr. Suess, the three best words to describe the Grinch were “stink, stank, stunk.” He is definitely presented as a “heel” and a “rotter” who despised everything Christmas, especially the noisy, euphoric celebration of it by the Whos down in Whoville. By now the story is familiar. The ole Grinch put on his Santa disguise, slithered into the town and swiped Christmas, even taking the very last can of Who-hash from poor little Cindy Lou Who’s house. Then he gleefully made his way back to his lair on Mt. Crumpit. Waiting for his dastardly deeds to be discovered, he eagerly anticipated the fallout:
“Pooh Pooh to the Whos!” he was grinchishly humming.
“They’re finding out now that no Christmas is coming!”
“They’re just waking up! I know just what they’ll do!”
“Their mouths will hang open a minute or two,
Then the Whos down in Whoville will all cry Boo Hoo!”
“That’s a noise,” grinned the Grinch, “That I simply MUST hear!”
But, of course, he did not hear any such thing—just the opposite. And that joyous noise overflowing in the absence of stockings and ribbons created such the puzzling dilemma for the Grinch that something wonderfully amazing happened. The Grinch discovered that, well, “maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store.” “Maybe,” he thought, “Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!” And in that moment, with his “Grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow” this epiphany made “the Grinch’s small heart grow three sizes that day!” Quite the dramatic conversion that saw him return Christmas to the Whos, with the Grinch, himself, even carving the roast beast! Whose heart does not grow a bit with every revisiting of this classic?
Christmas is a Little Bit More
Neither of these stories overtly reference or try to tell the story of the first Christmas. Dickens, it has been noted, wrote his story as an indictment upon the cruel treatment of child laborers and the plight of the poor in mid-1800s England. Dr. Suess (real name Theodor Geisel) came up with the Grinch as a response to his own disillusionment over Christmas becoming too commercialized. But they still tell that story—the story that Christmas means a little bit more.
What really makes Christmas special? What fuels the joy felt during this particular holiday? Why does a large part of the world still stop and celebrate each December 25th? As the Grinch learned, it is not about the stuff. Christmas is a little bit more because of a baby born in a manager; because of the “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10) that he brings; because this baby grew up, died on a cross to atone for our sins and was resurrected three days later. Without any doubt, Christmas means a little bit more only because of Jesus. The great conversions of Scrooge and the Grinch definitely reflect it, too. From what other context could these stories emerge? Why, now that they are oft-told, do they still deliver such an impact? This is what Jesus still can do if we give him the chance—from miserable miserly meanness to suddenly celebrating salvation!
I think our world is in need of many more great conversions. Remember how Dickens described the converted Scrooge as knowing how to keep Christmas as well as anyone? He followed that up by stating, “May that be truly said of us, and all of us!”
May it be said, indeed—today, Christmas Day and every day.
Posted by dannydodd 
Adventures in Preaching 