Looking for Jesus on Black Friday

I’m sure we all had a good laugh about the story of the lady who pepper-sprayed fellow customers on Black Friday this year to secure herself a discounted X-Box. We always laugh at such outrageous behavior because we don’t know what else to do. Some people are just nuts, and we can’t fathom what causes them to do such outrageous things.

But I have to take it a step further, personally. The whole phenomenon of Black Friday just baffles me. I understand that it‘s nice to save money, but standing in line at 2 AM to save a few hundred bucks on a TV? It would never be worth the aggravation for me.

Going even further, I will admit that I don’t really understand the logic behind celebrating Christmas with a frenzy of shopping and spending. We commemorate the birth of Jesus in a humble manger by emptying our bank accounts buying things we could easily do without. I admit I’m not a theologian or anything, but the connection just escapes me.

Let’s see what the Bible has to say about money and possessions:

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” 1 Timothy 6:10

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have.” Hebrews 13:5

“You cannot serve God and money.” Matthew 6:24

I could go on, but I think the message is pretty plain. If you’re spending most of your time thinking about money and the things that it can buy, you aren’t paying attention to the things the Bible says a Christian is supposed to be concerned with. And yet, on our most widely celebrated Christian holiday the main activity is centered on giving and getting stuff.

Certainly there are notable exceptions to this rampant holiday materialism, such as the Kids Yule Love program and the bell ringers for the Salvation Army. But if you add up the time most people spend shopping, cooking, and going to parties during the Christmas season versus how much time they spend being charitable, you know which side the scale is likely to tip.

If we were to ask ourselves how Jesus might celebrate his own birthday, I can’t imagine that he’d be in line at Best Buy at 4 in the morning waiting for a chance to buy a discounted high-definition TV. Instead, I expect he’d be doing the same thing he did every other day - being a friend to those who didn’t have one, providing for the needs of people who really needed help, and showing everyone (not just telling them) what God’s love is all about.

That’s why I get a chuckle every time I hear someone get on their soap box about the “war on Christmas”. Christmas has always been more about Santa Claus than the child in the manger. There was never a whole lot of Christ in the way we celebrate Christmas, and some people are expending way too much of their righteous indignation over how awful it is to be greeted with a “Happy Holidays” instead of a “Merry Christmas” this time of year.

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with Christmas, or how we celebrate it (as long as we don’t get too carried away with the spending and the partying). I just think we need to be honest with ourselves about what it is. It’s mainly an excuse for us to take off work, buy stuff for each other, eat, and have parties. All those things are fun, but they have little to do with Jesus or what he was about.

And somewhere this Christmas Eve, there’s probably a couple with a baby on the way wandering the streets looking in vain for a warm, dry place to lay their heads while we party and spoil each other with expensive presents. I guess some things don’t change.