Yet she still protected her baby. The Bible only tells us she was a prostitute. No other biographical information is added. Perhaps none is needed. She protected her baby. Her past didn’t determine her future. Her present challenges didn’t stifle her compassion. She put her baby’s future above her own need for social affirmation. She took what honor she had and she protected her baby.  And thousands of years later we are still telling her story.

Take a few minutes to read this surprising ProLife story found in the pages of the Old Testament (1 Kings 3):

Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. One woman said, “Please my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I had a baby while she was in the house. On the third day after I gave birth, she also had a baby and we were alone. No one else was with us in the house; just the two of us were there. During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your servant was asleep. She laid him at her breast, and she put her dead son in my arms. When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, I discovered he was dead. That morning, when I looked closely at him I realized that he was not the son I gave birth to.”

“No,” the other woman said. “My son is the living one; your son is the dead one.”

The first woman said, “No, your son is the dead one; my son is the living one.” So they argued before the king.

The king replied, “This woman says, ‘This is my son who is alive, and your son is dead,’ but that woman says, ‘No, your son is dead, and my son is alive.’” The king continued, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought the sword to the king. Solomon said, “Cut the living boy in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

The woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she felt great compassion for her son. “My lord, give her the living baby,” she said, “but please don’t have him killed!”

But the other one said, “He will not be mine or yours. Cut him in two!”

The king responded, “Give the living baby to the first woman, and don’t kill him. She is his mother.” All Israel heard about the judgment the king had given, and they stood in awe of the king because they saw that God’s wisdom was in him to carry out justice.

 

And it’s not supposed to.

My favorite time of the year is filled with crunchy leaves, smokey bonfires, crowded homecoming football games, and steamy apple cider. Autumn is followed by my second favorite season, which is unfortunately marked by eye-catching marketing campaigns, energy-draining hustle & bustle, and depressed and depleted checking accounts.

But capitalism and commercialization are not why Christmas doesn’t work. It’s deeper than that:

Three Reasons Why Christmas Doesn’t Work:

1.) Christmas doesn’t work because it produces desire without satisfaction.

If the story of Christmas was sufficient to satisfy the human soul then the gospel narratives would only be a few chapters in length. Jesus was born: it is finished. That would make for a short New Testament. Besides severing the four gospels, one could throw out Paul’s epistles and the book of Revelation altogether.

Christmas is a riveting and deeply meaningful story that provides enough intrigue to make the common man feel a loss for words. It is enough to invoke a sense of collective awe and inspire goodwill toward men. It enables civilizations to pause on the precipice of peril long enough to steal a kiss under the mistletoe and sing “Auld Lang Syne.” But it does little more than scratch the surface of the human experience and even less to reveal the character and purposes of God.

Christmas doesn’t work.

2.) Christmas doesn’t work because it brings familiarity without fulfillment.

The Christmas season is like the flu shot: it gives people enough of Jesus to inoculate them to true conversion. Most are comfortable with little Jesus, meek and mild, that they prefer for him stay that way. That’s why many homes feature a nativity in December. One would be hard pressed to find a crucifix planted amidst the blooming tulips of April. December 25th lulls the culture into a spiritual stupor by replacing the garden-praying Messiah with an anglican baby made of porcelain and decorated with blue eyes and sandy hair. The Jewish child born to a teenage girl pregnant out of wedlock is sterilized, repackaged, and made more palatable for display on Hallmark greeting cards. In this sense, Christmas brings the culture further from the cross than any other holiday.

Christmas doesn’t work.

3.) Christmas doesn’t work because it offers immanence without transcendence.

So much is said about the god who came near (immanence) that one can miss the absolute denial of a God who actually exists outside of time and space (transcendence). Thus, Christmas is a good excuse to take time off work, exchange presents and pleasantries, and reflect on what really matters. But what does really matter? It won’t be discovered in a manger, that’s for sure. It begins there, but that is far from where it ends. Tragically, for most, Christmas has everything to do with Bethlehem and nothing to do with Jerusalem.

Christmas doesn’t work.

No one can respectfully claim expertise of a particular book from merely reading the preface or a blurb from the dust jacket. Introductions are important, but only if they introduce the reader to something; or in this case, to someone. One must not mistake the prologue, for the Word itself.

The advent is empty without the adventure. The wise man’s gifts are valueless apart from the thorny crown and rugged cross. The manger is meaningless without the empty tomb. In sum, Christmas is incomplete without Easter.

Because, after all, Christmas doesn’t work.

It was never intended to. But Christ — the real, bruised, bloody, determined, crucified and raised Christ — he is able to satisfy man’s deepest need and longing. Warm thoughts about his birth will accomplish nothing. Reflection cannot substitute for repentance, nor nostalgic feelings for authentic faith.

Don’t let Christmas blind you from Christ.

But like most vices, its easily enough dismissed as something positive. I can quite naturally present it as discernment. I can lead others to believe it is a sign of wisdom: I understand the real problem. I really know how to size up the situation.

But in the end it is nothing more than one of the vilest sins a Christian can commit. A critical spirit is in this way a manifestation of pride itself. Pride is, of course, the most frequently repudiated attitude in the Bible. But in many Christian circles today, it has been downgraded as a personality trait of learned men, who can really express themselves only in this way. We act as though a critical spirit is a privilege of the elite.

But then there is Jesus, the logos made flesh: who humbled himself and became a servant. Instead of condescending criticism he chose a water basin and a towel; instead of a caustic attitude a cross.

If I am to criticize someone it should be myself for not being more like him. In this way the only truly constructive criticism is self-criticism.Thus, this post is written for no one but myself, but I suppose even in publishing it, to some measure, I’m betraying my own words.

After all, I am the only person I can really change. God help me.

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seemed to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity,

Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.
Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead
Of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye,
Take me from all my trumpery lest I die.

While my blog updates have been sparse, it’s not for lack of personal study or growth. I have a great deal I plan on sharing from the lesser known facts of C.S. Lewis that I’ve found in preparation for the course I’m teaching by the title of “C.S. Lewis: His life, writings and legacy” at Boyce College the week after next. I am putting the final touches on an essay, “The Apologetics of a Talking Faun,” which resulted in an venture of over 2K words summarizing Lewis’ war time apologetics that brought him fame, through much anguish of soul. Stay tuned.