Silent Night, Holy War
By Dr. Nathan E. Jones
(Note: Our guest contributor, Dr. Erwin Lutzer, is the Pastor Emeritus of Moody Church in Chicago. Originally from Canada, he is an award-winning author and beloved speaker.)
There will be no Christmas celebrations in Turkey this year.
Several years ago, Rebecca and I visited Turkey (Asia Minor), where Paul spent most of his time planting churches. It is also where the famous Seven Churches of Revelation existed, which is why we toured the country. When we visited all seven of these sites, we were dismayed at what we saw.
The Seven Churches of Asia Minor no longer exist. I am not talking about church buildings – I’m talking about congregations and the fact that there is no visible Christian presence of any kind in these cities. Small groups of Christians may celebrate Christmas there, but they will do so quietly, in small groups of a dozen or less, keeping a low profile. In the large city of Istanbul, a few churches will be allowed to be open, but there will be no public celebrations.
Our challenge in America is not the crushing opposition of Islam (at least not yet), but rather the equally devastating commercialization of Christmas. We have diluted the message of Christmas and turned our celebration of Christ into a celebration of ourselves. We give each other gifts rather than giving gifts to the One whose birthday we honor. Today, few people understand that Christmas has something to do with Jesus, and even fewer realize that it has to do with God’s plan for redemption.
Neither the imposed silence of Islam nor the theological silence of commercialization represents the kind of “silent night” the beautiful Christmas carol celebrates.
A Beloved Carol
Silent night, holy night,
all is calm, all is bright!
Round yon virgin mother and child!
Holy infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Sleep in heavenly peace!
There’s no question that this is the most widely-loved Christmas carol that has ever been written. And yet, as providence would have it, we probably would not have that carol were it not for a broken organ.
A young pastor by the name of Joseph Mohr had promised his congregation that there would be music for Christmas, though he didn’t know where it would come from since the church organ was broken.
But on Christmas Eve, he went to visit a woodcutter and his wife, who were celebrating the birth of a little baby in their home. So, on the way home, thinking about the baby Jesus and looking at the village and seeing the calmness and the stillness around, Joseph Mohr wrote:
“Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Alles schläft; einsam wacht.”
In German the words are exquisite:
“Silent night, holy night,
Everything is asleep. Only loneliness keeps watch.”
Organist Franz Gruber added music and then spread it to other churches. Just 22 years after it was written, you have King Wilhelm of Prussia saying that “Silent Night” must be first among all the carols when they are sung in the concerts of Prussia. Today, it’s been translated into 120 different languages.
We all love “Silent Night,” don’t we? There’s something about the virgin, the Child, and the sentimentality. We love to sing “Silent Night,” and I hope we sing it often this Christmas.
But there’s something about Christmas that’s troubling to me, and that is that in our society we have reduced it to the Baby and the Virgin and Joseph. We have sentimentalized it. We have also commercialized it, and of course, we have sanitized it. And in doing so, we have hollowed out the significance of Christ’s First Advent, which points inevitably to His Second Coming.
What got me thinking along this line is the story of a little girl who, when she was walking along the street with her mother, looking into the window of the store, said to her mother, “Who is the baby?” And the mother said, “That’s the Baby Jesus.” And she said, “Really? Why doesn’t He grow up? He’s the same size as last year.” That troubles me. Jesus never grows up. He’s always the same size as last year.
The birth of Baby Jesus may have been at a time when nature was silent. And we love the carol because Jesus came so personally and so silently, so we sing “Silent Night.” But believe me when I tell you that in the cosmic realm, His birth elicited and began a whole series of battles, what I refer to as “Silent Night, Holy War.”
The Dragon’s Fury
Revelation describes the pitched battle that erupted in the spiritual realm when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Revelation 12:1-4 says:
“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. And she was with child, and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.”
That’s what was happening the night before Christmas. The dragon wanted to kill the Christ Child. Now, to understand this, realize that it was to the serpent that the statement was made by God in Genesis, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. You will be able to nip the heel of the woman’s seed, but the woman’s seed will crush your head.” (Genesis 3:15, para.). The whole history of the Old Testament is Satan – the Dragon, the Serpent – trying to kill the seed of the woman. He thinks it’s Abel, so he inspires Cain to kill Abel. Then, lo and behold, Adam and Eve have another child son they name Seth who carries on the seed. He causes the whole world to fall into a state of rebellion, lawlessness, and horrendous sexual sin, and he thinks the whole world now is corrupt. No seed! But lo and behold, there’s Noah in the Ark with his family carrying along the seed.
The whole world is then paganized, and he thinks, “What can God do now?” and there is Abraham being called by God to continue the seed. Then, because he’s a keen student of prophecy (there’s no question about that), Satan overhears the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary: “That which is conceived in thee is of the Holy Spirit. You shall bear a child, and He shall be called Jesus. And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father, David, and of His kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:31-35, para.). And he realizes that this, at last, is indeed the promised seed.
The scene in Revelation is grotesque. It’s intended to be. The woman who is about to give birth to a child represents Israel. Satan, the Dragon standing by to devour Him, inspired Herod to have all the male children two years old and younger killed in the vicinity of Bethlehem. He tried to have Jesus killed, but Jesus and His parents escape into Egypt, foiling his scheme.
Satan’s Scheme
Since the devil could not destroy Him, he endeavored to distract Him. During the temptation in the wilderness, Satan said, “Come and turn these stones into bread; satisfy your flesh. Come, bow down and worship me. Grab all the kingdoms without going to the Cross” (Luke 4:1-13, para.). That didn’t work either because Jesus met him with the Word of God and repeatedly said, “It is written.” So, Satan was left with trying to discredit Him.
Mouthing the lies of Satan, the Pharisees tried to discredit Jesus, saying, “You are of Beelzebub, the father of demons. You are demon-possessed.” When that didn’t work, Satan motivated others to try to derail Him. The people in Nazareth tried to push Jesus down the brow of a hill, attempting to derail Jesus’ ministry and kill Him before His time. That effort also failed.
Finally, at the Cross, Satan seemed to defeat Jesus in physical combat. He inspired Judas to betray Him and Jesus was nailed to the Cross. His death was verified. The Dragon and all those who fell with him (and by the way, this passage tells us that a third of the angels joined Satan when he rebelled) rejoiced, exclaiming, “He’s dead. He’s dead. We got Him! We got Him!”
But the demonic celebration was premature because, three days later, something happened. What’s a sealed tomb to the Son of God? What’s a dead corpse to the Son of God? Nothing! Jesus died and was resurrected, then “He was caught up into heaven” (Luke 24:51, Acts 1:9-11).
All of that history – and Satan’s downfall – is contained in those verses. Satan was defeated again! Defeated because Jesus triumphed over everything that the dragon tried to do.
The War Still Rages
So, what is Christmas all about? Silent night, holy war!
Centuries have passed. We still struggle with the Devil. The Christian Church advances, but Satan still rages and wages war on the saints. He still tries to destroy, distract, discredit, and derail. He likes to accuse us, and he even has the nerve to accuse us to God (Revelation 12:10). And what he wants to do is to make us feel utterly unworthy of God’s love and beyond His forgiveness.
To cite another famous German, the great Protestant Martin Luther once told how the Devil came to him and wrote down all his sins. Luther asked, “Are you finished?” Satan replied, “No, get more paper.” The Devil continued writing down the sins, and Luther asked again, “Are you finished yet?” Satan said, “No, there’s more. More paper!” After Satan had used up all the paper, Martin Luther wrote at the bottom, “Of all of these sins, the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us.” The Accuser slunk away, defeated.
That’s really what Christmas is all about.
Jesus came in His First Advent as the sacrificial Lamb of God. It’s not the Jesus in the manger who saves us; it’s the grown-up Jesus who laid down His life on our behalf. And the heavenly peace we sing about will remain elusive until the Prince of Peace reigns upon the earth.
To answer the question of the little girl, “Does Jesus ever grow up?” the answer is, “Yes, He did grow up.” It’s not the Jesus of Bethlehem. It’s the Jesus of the Cross. It’s the Jesus who triumphs as God, as Savior, and as King. It’s the Jesus who is coming again.
The Dawn of Redeeming Grace
So, how do we redeem Christmas from Christmas? How do we reject the mere sentimental and commercial version of the Nativity and overcome Satan’s effort to destroy, distract, discredit, and derail the real meaning of Christmas?
I think we can take a note from the Wise Men. The Bible says that when they came into the house – and of course, at that time, Jesus was almost certainly over a year old – the first thing they did was to fall down and worship Him. Worship Him – that’s the way to redeem Christmas.
The Bible says that after worshipping Him, they opened their treasures and gave Him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now, my friend, we have that opportunity today. We can worship Him and give Him gifts. You say, “We can’t give gifts to Jesus.” Oh, yes we can! He said these words: “If you give them to My brothers and My sisters, you have given those gifts to Me” (Matthew 25:40, para.).
And Jesus said, “Whoever I send in My Name, if you received them in My Name, you’re receiving Me!” (Matthew 10:40, para.). What a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas, to give gifts recognizing that we’re giving them in the Name of Jesus.
The last stanza of the song speaks of God’s unfathomable love and points to the unmerited gift of salvation that would be sealed at the Cross. Let’s remember that Christ’s birth marked the dawning of His redeeming grace in a dark and hopeless world. And let’s commit to telling others of His gift of grace that was given to us.
Let’s do that, for the glory of God.
Silent night! Holy night!
Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth!
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth!