Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast, making theology central. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Yuletide carols being sung by a choir. and folks dressed up like Eskimos. Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe. Help to make the season bright. Tiny tots with their eyes aglow will find it hard to sleep tonight. They know that Santa's on his way. He's loaded lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh. And every mother's child is gonna spy to see if reindeer really know how to fly. And so I'm offering this simple phrase to kids from one to 92, although it's been said many times and in many ways, Merry Christmas to you. And so I'm offering this simple phrase to kids from one to 92, although it's been said many times and many ways, Merry Christmas to you. Now that's a very, very popular song. And it really captures that feeling that people want to feel during the Christmas season, right? Something magical, something different, something warm, something joyful, something happy, something just... something great. That's what we all want. Some people have very good memories of wonderful Christmases in the past, right? Merry Christmas, and they loved it, and they remember. Others, maybe not such good memories, but we all long for that, right? We all want that. We all want that feeling. We desire it. Maybe we have very high expectations, but you can have those expectations. You can have that desire. You can want that. But sometimes, instead of chestnuts roasting on an open fire and Jack Frost nipping at your nose and Yuletide carols being sung by a choir? Sometimes, instead of tiny tots with their eyes all aglow? Sometimes, rather than just turkey and mistletoe making everything wonderful and bright, sometimes, instead of those things? Well, You get this. I'm Bernadette Keogh and in the early hours of Sunday the 22nd of December, these are our main stories. The German city of Magdeburg is in mourning after a car was driven into a crowd at a Christmas market, killing five. We hear about the possible motives the suspected attacker may have had. Albania is Did you hear that? Let me play that one more time in case you haven't been paying attention to the news. This is the most recent broadcast from BBC News. Listen again carefully. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Bernadette Keogh and in the early hours of Sunday, the 22nd of December, these are our main stories. The German city of Magdeburg is in mourning after a car was driven into a crowd at a Christmas market, killing five. We hear about the possible motives the suspected attacker may have had. There were people gathered at a Christmas market and tragedy struck. no chestnuts roasting on an open fire, no yuletide choir singing, no young kids with their eyes all wide open, ready for their presents, no mistletoe, no wonderful time, tragedy struck. And I want to talk briefly about the tragedy, but just talk about Christmas in general and hopefully, hopefully offer some thoughts that will give us something really serious to contemplate and think about during this time of year. But before we do that, let me just go ahead and welcome everyone. It is Saturday, December the 21st, 2024. It is currently 8.15 p.m. Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, the broadcast you were just listening to is Sunday, obviously, where the BBC is located, but here in Texas, it is 8.15 p.m. on Saturday, December the 21st. For the BBC, it's now Sunday, and they are broadcasting about this tragedy that struck. We had a tragedy a Christmas market where a vehicle attack resulted in the loss of five lives and injured, according to some reports, up to 200 if not more individuals. And this has obviously cast a shadow over a season that we all long for, we all hope for, would be filled with joy and with hope and with laughter. That's what we hope for. That's what we long for. That's what we want. We want that Christmas song, right? That's what we want. But it doesn't always work that way because in your past, You may not have had a literal car, but you may have had something just as tragic drive right through the middle of your life, leaving devastation, pain, suffering, maybe even death. Maybe it was in your past. Maybe it's in your present. Maybe right now in 2024 there's some of you right now and you are already filled with grief and you're broken because of what's happening in your present. Others see in the future. You already see the car coming, metaphorically speaking, and you know the pain and suffering it's going to cause. Sometimes our expectations for this time of season, well, it's just, We're left crushed and devastated and we feel like, what happened? This is not the way Christmas is supposed to be. And it can be very difficult for us to try to understand it. And then we read, well, we read maybe a scripture like this. And there were, this is from Luke chapter two, And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. That's Luke chapter 2 verse 8. Now, you know the scene, you've seen it, you've probably seen people even act it out, maybe some Christmas play drama at your church. You've seen it dramatized, but just try to imagine it in your own mind. Forget everything, all the pictures you've seen. Here are these shepherds, it's late at night, and they're keeping watch over their flock. We don't wanna embellish this, we don't wanna dramatize this, we wanna just a real, these are shepherds outside at night, keeping watch over their flock. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Good tidings of great joy. Do you ever struggle with that this time of year? Do you struggle with that? Because everyone talks about good tidings of great joy. That's what Christmas is about. Well, I don't know. You may want to go to Germany right now and talk to the people who, I don't know, who just lost loved ones because a car attack. Someone took a car, drove it into a Christmas market, killing people. If you've never worked in the medical world, If you've never worked in the medical world, well, you know, find a way to go sit outside of a hospital on Christmas night, Christmas, yeah, Christmas night. You'll see people walking out in tears because their loved one just died. You'll see people rushing to the emergency room because someone was injured or someone had a heart attack or someone, something horrible happened. I'll never forget one Christmas I was working at the hospital in Nebraska. And, you know, some people come running into the emergency room. They were yelling and screaming because the father of the family had collapsed. And so they put him in the car, calling an ambulance. They drove him right there. We brought him in, did everything we could, and he died. He died of a heart attack. wasn't even that old. I think maybe in his 30s, maybe, maybe 40, if that. And his whole family was with him. It was Christmas night and he died on Christmas night. Now, while we're back there, they're doing everything they can to resuscitate and try to save and try to bring back. Guess what? I had to go tell the family ultimately what had occurred. I had to go help fill out the death certificate. They'll never forget. That entire family will never forget. Christmas will never be the same for them. Just like those people at that Christmas market. They'll never forget it. So what do you tell people? Hey, good tidings of great joy. Good tidings of great joy. See, we put that on our Christmas cards that we send out, right? This time of year, this is what we tell everyone, good tidings of great joy. When everyone goes to the, you know, candlelight service on Christmas Eve, good tidings of great joy. And you light your candles, you sing some songs and you go home. Now, some of you will go home. You'll have your family, you'll have presents, you'll have the mistletoe, you'll be kissing your loved one, and it'll be wonderful, and maybe snow will be falling, and you'll have a fireplace, and it'll be wonderful. And by no means should you feel guilty for having all of that. You should embrace it, and you should love it, and you should be grateful for it, and don't miss out one second of it. But don't think for a second that you telling everyone good tidings of great joy, see how wonderful it is. Don't think that there's other people who are going to be in a far different situation. Do we take this message of good tidings and great joy and say that that's for you or for me? For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. Oh, we want that peace. We want that goodwill. We want that good tidings. We want that joy. We want that. We long for that. How do we understand this? In times of sorrow, in times of tragedy, in times of pain, in times of loneliness, in times of depression and despair, Is the Christmas message, is it relevant? Does it even work? Does it mean anything? Now maybe it does, but maybe we've so twisted it. Maybe we've so taken what was actually meant and we try to promise people something that was never promised in the Christmas story. Now, some may take this story of the shepherds and they may say, well, you see, these shepherds and Luke's gospel, they were enveloped in darkness, both literally And metaphorically, that's what some people would say. Now, we know literally they were in darkness, literally, because it says they were watching their flock by night. So they were literally in the dark, literally. I mean, they didn't have like flashlights or anything like that at the time. They would have really literally been in the dark. Okay. All right. So there's a literal... Can we understand any metaphorical darkness? Some would say, because they were shepherds, that their lives would be marked by maybe hardships, especially of the occupation, which they had, that was not an easy job. And maybe because of them being shepherds and because of their status, there would have been some oppression at that time, especially for the Jews under the control of Rome. There may have been some oppression that they were dealing. In other words, things may not have been so wonderful and great. That may not be too much of a stretch. But it was into that darkness, it was into that situation, that the angel says, hey, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people, depending on the translation you're reading. I'm bringing you good news of great joy. which shall be to all people, that this is good news of great joy. This news is good. It should bring great joy and it should bring it to all people. Now, is this good news? If you're outside at night watching sheep and you're living under maybe oppression and your job is difficult and hard and maybe they're going through difficult things in their life, is the good news? Hey, everything's gonna get better. Everything. The oppression is gonna be gone. Your job's gonna get better. Your family's gonna get better. Your loneliness is gonna go away. Everything's... Well, we have to know. That's not what it's saying. We have to know that, right? this message of good news, it was proclaimed while in the literal darkness. They were literally at night. They were literally in the darkness where it was proclaimed. It was literally in that darkness where they were told, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people. This announcement did not come to the powerful. It did not come to the privileged. It did not come to people in a maybe in a much more like picturesque situation, right? It didn't come to people sitting in their house with their family, you know, watching Christmas movies, and everything is wonderful, and there's presents under the tree, and there's a fire in the fire, and everything's wonderful, and the husband's hugging the wife, and everything's beautiful. It didn't come, the message didn't come to that situation. It came to shepherds outside at night watching their flock. Maybe there's something to that. Maybe, maybe, maybe I want there to be something to that. But it is true that the message came to humble shepherds. I think maybe there's something to that. So as, I don't know about you, as you try to process the story of what happened in Magdeburg there in Germany, in that city, where five were killed, over 200 wounded, or at least close to 200 injured, I should say. Can we find any solace? Can we find any comfort? Can we find anything positive in this horrible tragedy in light of this story about the tidings of great joy? Is there anything we can find in it? I don't know if we can, but is it possible? I think we can say this. The snooze. This good news that was being proclaimed to them was about a baby that was going to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. The good news is a baby has been born, or as they would say, this is the good news. Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord, which is the Christ the Lord. It is the Christ. The good news is this baby A baby has been born, but obviously it's not just any baby. It's the Christ. It's the Lord. See, the good news is that baby is Immanuel, God with us. That baby is God in the flesh. And he has now entered into a broken world. He has entered into the darkness, literally, metaphorically. And you know what's great about this baby who was born into it? He is light and the darkness cannot overcome it. In John chapter one. In John chapter one. We read, "'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.'" Other translations have and the darkness has not overcome it. So depending on which way you want to go, but the light entered into the darkness, that darkness cannot get rid of that light, no matter what it may do, whether it understands it, ignores it, or tries to overcome it, it cannot. So in a roundabout way, The light of Christ remains steadfast even in the midst of tragedy. It's still there. He was still born. He was born, He lived, He died, He was buried, He was resurrected, and He ascended to the right hand of the Father for whence He will come. to judge the living and the dead. The reality of Christ entering into this broken world, it's still there, and it's still, there's still supposed to be something about that fact that is good news, good tidings, should bring great joy. Now, is it the fact that he came to make all of our problems better? Did he come to fix everything? I think that's where the things get convoluted and we get messed up because we want to almost preach this, hey, look, you're going through difficult times, you're lonely, you're filled with despair and discouragement. Well, believe in Jesus and your darkness will be cast aside, the light will shine upon you. You'll be filled with joy. Everything's going to be better. Everything's going to be wonderful in your life. And I think that's where we mess up. That baby was born. Nobody's life got immediately better. Things did not get wonderful for anybody involved, right? I mean, look at the things that occur after his birth. Aren't some other babies killed? I mean, do things get better? Does Israel immediately get released from their bondage from Rome? I mean, I mean, no, they don't. Do people stop dying? No, there's pain. Now, he's going to come and do some wonderful things, but that's only temporary. We know that. And he doesn't do it for all people, because we know he raises Lazarus from the dead, but not John the Baptist. We can go through all the complications of all of it, but we know he doesn't do everything for everyone. You see, the Christmas message is ultimately about hope and peace through salvation and the promise of eternal life. It is not a guarantee of relief from pain. It's not a guarantee of a relief from suffering. It's not a guarantee of a relief or a protection from tragedy. And this is a key distinction that has to shape the way we interpret and communicate the message of Christ's birth. Good news, peace, hope, joy. But you gotta understand what that is referencing. That is referencing hope, peace with God. We're no longer at enmity with God. Salvation, our sins have been forgiven. We have eternal life. Nothing can separate me from the love of God, but there is no guarantee at all that anything in your life is going to get better. In fact, it could get worse. In fact, the car that's coming to drive through your life, to bring pain, death, suffering, It could be just around the corner. It could be headed your way and may not get here in 2024, but it could be in 2025. It could be in 2026. But let me know. I'm going to let you know. Okay. I already know, but I'm going to let you know. It's on its way. Just like it's on its way into my life. And that car has driven through my life multiple times. You see, the angel's announcement to the shepherds in Luke 2, 14, glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those whom his favor rests, points to a deep spiritual peace, a reconciliation between humanity and God through the coming Savior. This peace is not the absence of external conflict or suffering, but it is the assurance of God's presence, his redemption, and the hope of a future kingdom where sin, suffering, and death will no longer exist. And you can read about that in Revelation chapter 21. We have to see this promise as something spiritual, something, it's salvific, right? It's not about the material, physical world being all made, right? It's about the reality that a savior has come to save us from our sins. And why is this the correct way to understand this Christmas narrative? Well, just in light of what just occurred in Germany, where five people were run over and killed by someone attacking people with a car at a Christmas market. Over 200 injured. Well, just the reality of suffering in this life. Jesus explicitly told his disciples, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. This acknowledges the inevitability of suffering while pointing to the ultimate victory found in him. He has overcome the world, but that's for glorification. In the meantime, we know he's overcome, we trust. Think of it this way, you receive this message in the dark. all around you screams no joy, no good news, no peace, no hope. Look at your life. Look at your circumstances. Be filled with despair. Just be despondent. Just give up. Just lay down and give up. That's what the news comes to us in that environment, but that doesn't mean that the news is not real. It's just it's pointing to something that we have to believe by faith. We can't see the fulfillment. We can't see eternity where there's no more pain and no more suffering and death. We can only see it by faith because but we're it the message is delivered to us in darkness. The Apostle Paul reminds us that we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that our suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Suffering is a part of the Christian journey. We just have to accept it. It's a part of it. It may have a purpose. Now, sometimes that is disturbing, right? And that raises other questions, but it's there. A lot of times during the Christmas season, someone will reference Isaiah 9, verses 6-7, which speaks of the coming Messiah, most would argue, and it speaks of him as being the Prince of Peace, whose government and peace will have no end. This looks forward to an eternal kingdom, rather than an immediate, temporal relief. And just remember, This is what caused the Jews so many problems. See, even when the Jews kind of realized, wait a minute, this could be Christ, this could be the Messiah, this could be Christ the Lord. Yeah, okay, okay. Get rid of the Romans, fix our, get rid of our oppression, free us, do it. And well, that wasn't Jesus' mission at that time. He was coming to die and they did not understand it. And they were upset with it. They were not happy with it. They were confused. Now, they were right to believe in a coming kingdom. They wanted that kingdom now. And so many times when we hear the Christmas story, we almost sell it to people. Come to Jesus and everything's going to be wonderful. It's going to be chestnuts roasting by the open fire. It's going to be Yuletide choir singing. And it's going to be all the presents and the mistletoe and the family. And it's going to be all these. I'm sorry. There's no problem. You can come to Jesus and be just as alone as you have ever been physically. You may be isolated, alone. The disease is not going to go away. Things may not get any better. The job may not get any better. You still may not have any hopes of a new job. But when it talks about the Prince of Peace, it's promising an eternal kingdom. An eternal kingdom is coming! But we want it now! But it's not for now! It's for then! Jesus himself, that little baby born, entered into a world of pain and tragedy. His life, his death, and his resurrection demonstrated that suffering is not avoided, but it is transformed into a means by which salvation is achieved. For Christ, he suffered to accomplish our salvation. We suffer in the midst of our salvation until we reach the true ultimate salvation, which is glorification. See, when tragedies like occurred at Magdeburg in the Christmas market, five dead, 200 injured, the Christmas message reminds us that all, this is very important, it will remind us, not that all will be made right in this life because it will not, but that God has provided a way to make all things new in eternity. In the face of suffering, we cling to the hope of eternity. We cling to the salvation which that baby provided to us through his death, burial, and resurrection. We hold on to the assurance that evil and death do not have the final word. Now, if we hold on to that perspective, this prevents the misuse of scripture to offer false promises of immediate relief and instead directs our focus to an eternal unshakable hope found in Christ. But just in a roundabout way, I'm gonna go back to Luke 2, I don't know where you're going to be. I don't know where you are tonight. I don't know where you're going to be tomorrow night, leading all the way up to Christmas night. I don't know where you're going to be. But you may be in an empty room in the dark alone. You may be filled with despair, discouragement. I mean, I say this all the time, but I only say this because I want you to understand that I have, the reason I talk so much about these types of things this time of year is because it all, I have some experience with it. Where I am broadcasting from, I'm literally, what, maybe 10 minutes away, not even, probably five minutes away. I probably could be there in five to six minutes away. I am about five to six minutes away from the mental hospital that I was admitted to when I was a teenager after I tried to kill myself. And guess when I was in that mental hospital? Guess when I was there? I was there over Thanksgiving. And I was there over Christmas. I spent Christmas in a mental hospital alone. And I was a Christian. Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. If someone gave me a card, unless I understood what they meant, I could have, I know nobody sent me a card, nobody came to see, I mean, I don't want to get into all the horrible things that happened in my life at that time, but I can tell you this. Good tidings of great joy at that time, I wouldn't have understood. I would have been in a sense in the field in the dark. Now, doesn't mean there wasn't a good news. There was good news because the good news was Christ had died for me. My sins have been forgiven. The good news was, my sins have been forgiven and I have been saved by an imputed righteousness. So that is good news. That is good tidings. There is a message of peace and hope. But it was not for that broken teenager in a mental hospital. No, no. As far as everything in my life was going to get better. Because guess what? When I got out of the mental hospital, my mom still was dead. Oh, and then things went from bad to worse as far as my, because I went back home to be, because I wasn't living at home when my mother died and then things just got worse. I won't get into everything. Things did not get better, ladies and gentlemen. Things got much, much, much worse in many ways. But guess what? That good news was still good news. So what I want you to know is wherever you are going to be this Christmas, I don't know. I don't know what kind of darkness you're going to be in, right? I don't know. But the good news is still for you. Cling to it. Now, I know what you want, and I know what I do the same time. Sometimes I'm like, okay, great. Good news. You died for me. My sins are forgiven. But what about my life right now? Could you fix it? Could you do something? But you know what? You can't. It doesn't work that way. Oh, I wish it did. I wish it did, but it doesn't. And I've been saying this in every podcast. You know what you can do? Don't worry about anybody else. Those people who have it good, be grateful. Just be happy for them as best as you can. And if that doesn't work for you, just don't even think about it. Let them go live their lives, be happy. They're like Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. And they're singing the songs and everything's wonderful. Happy, happy. And they, great. Just don't worry about it. You just look at your situation and you just say, okay. Good news. Good news. Great joy. Because unto you, you and me, is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Now, I know in that context that is referencing the shepherds, you could say it's very Israel specific at the same time, but we know it also refers to us because he died for us. peace, goodwill towards all men. In Christ, there's peace. In Christ, there's goodwill. Because there's salvation because of His imputed righteousness. So maybe in our darkness, we remember the light that's shown in the darkness to the shepherds. And that Christ is the light that entered into that darkness, literally. And that darkness, they can't comprehend it, they can't overcome it. That light remains. No matter how dark it may be, that light still remains for us. Oh, and right now, yeah, there's people in Germany loved ones went to a Christmas market. Can you imagine what they, they may have been excited. There would have been laughter. There would have been joy. They're going to a Christmas market. And all of a sudden they hear this horrible sound and a car comes driving into the market, running people down. I can't even wrap my mind around that. I don't understand it. God, I could get into all my questions. Where was God? Where was God? I will never understand. But I know this, God made no promises at all to fix the things in our lifetime. There's nothing in the Bible that would even indicate that. In the Bible, people suffer, there's death, there's destruction, there's sin, there's failure. I know we like to preach, come to Jesus and everything is wonderful and great. But there's nothing promising that it's going to be that way. It just makes me mad that that's the way it's sometimes put forth. There'll be people, some people, maybe Christmas Eve, Christmas night, there'll be some people who'll wander into a church. Maybe they'll light a candle. Maybe they'll just watch. Maybe they'll sing the songs. Maybe they're trying to get a little bit of the feeling, and then the service will end. The candles will be extinguished, darkness will be there, and then they'll watch everyone walk out. The families all together walking out, the kids laughing, everyone laughing and cheerful, knowing all those people are gonna go home. go back to their homes where they have love and companionship and all of these wonderful things. But that individual will go back to someplace alone in darkness. Now, is there any message for them? Or is the message just for all the people who have everything so perfect? Well, the message here came to shepherds. I don't know if there's any significance to it. You could talk about shepherds were given the message about the great shepherd. They were watching the flock and Jesus would be the sacrificial lamb. Maybe there is some, you know, symbolism in all of this. But there's gotta be a message. And there is a message of good news. But the good news, the joy, is that you have been saved from your sins because of Christ's death, shed blood, and His obedience being imputed to your account by faith alone. That is good news. That gives you grace. You can hold on to that, but it doesn't mean anything else is going to go right. It's going to be perfect. It's going to be wonderful. It doesn't mean anything is coming to help solve your problems. Thanks for listening. I don't know what the next couple of days have in store for you. I don't know. I hope it's good. I really do hope it's good. But I'm always so painfully aware that it's not going to be good for everyone. And that always just really Maybe I should be able to celebrate with all the people who have it so good, but I'm always broken for the people who it's not. I so know what that's like to just be like, what is going on in my life? How did I end up in a mental hospital after I tried to kill myself? How did I end up as a young person with a dead mother? How did I end up with being raised in a home with abuse? How did all of these things occur? I don't know. And you can look at your current situation, you may be thinking, how did I end up here? I have no, there's no answer to it. And there's no hope that that's going to go away. But there is hope in eternity. I don't know how we reconcile that. But all we can do is hold on to that light in the midst of the darkness, because that's kind of what it's all about. We constantly are giving truths from God in Scripture. in the midst of circumstances and situations that scream to us, there is no God, God is gone, God is not involved, God does not care, but we have to not allow all of those circumstances to cause us to give away, to let go of those truths we have been holding onto. We just have to understand those truths are pointing to something which we cannot currently see, and we have to believe ultimately in the salvation and the glorification and the eternity that has been promised. How you reconcile that, I don't have any good answers. Does it always make things better? It doesn't. Does it always make you be able to feel better? It doesn't always make it. I can't even promise you're even gonna feel better. Just can promise you that's the way we have to look at it. Thanks for listening. Everyone have a great night. And I hope for many, I really, really do, I hope for many, It's a merry, merry, merry Christmas. And for everyone else, it may not be merry, but those spiritual promises are yours, no matter what your circumstances may say. God bless.