Who is Coming to Town?
Santa Claus is Coming to Town is among the most popular tunes in our culture. It was written in 1934 by Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie and first performed on a radio show hosted by the famous Eddie Cantor. It was an instant hit with over 100,000 orders for the sheet music the following day, and 400,000 before Christmas that year. Since that year this short, catchy piece has worked its way indelibly into American life. The list of recording artists, vocal and instrumental, that have put their talents to its service reads like Who’s Who. Everybody from Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters to Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, and Sugarcult has wanted this tiny tune in their repertoire. It has surely become both a shaper and an expression of what America feels about Christmas.
Oh, you better watch out; you better not cry,
Better not pout, I’m tellin’ you why
Santa Claus is comin’ to town.
He’s making a list, and checking it twice,
Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice,
Santa Claus is comin’ to town
He sees you when you’re sleeping; he knows when you’re awake
He knows when you’ve been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!
Oh … You better watch out, you better not cry,
Better not pout I’m tellin’ you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
Why is this song such a perennial hit? Maybe because it’s happy, in a moralistic way, which is a comforting sort of happiness to us because we tend to think we’re pretty good. Maybe because it reflects our deep intuition about life, that we should get what we deserve (or at least hope for), assuming we have been good and not pouted. Or perhaps it conveys a moral lesson that we want our kids to imbibe, that niceness is rewarded and nastiness is not, even though we know by experience that life doesn’t always work this way. Whatever the reason, this song has permanently marked our nation’s Christmas ethos, highest ideals, and even its theology.
And thinking theologically of course … it is total heresy, absolutely the opposite of the gospel message of Christmas. Now, please, I’m not trying to pour fundamentalist holy water on the cultural Christmas festivities. I don’t really bristle when I hear this jingle. But when I think of the real reason God permanently became a man it contrasts so starkly with the message of this song, and of our culture, that I must point it out. When you think about it, Santa Claus is Coming to Town conveys a message of blatant legalism and ultimate condemnation. Who among God’s children has not pouted or cried, or has successfully avoided naughtiness and embraced niceness? Well, then, who can rely on the love of the One who is Coming?
The fact is, God doesn’t give people what they deserve in this life. And he doesn’t get what he deserves in this life, either. Quite the opposite. We deserve a lot less blessing than we get, and he deserves a lot more. The gospel (See Romans 5:3-8) says that while we were enemies, evil, godless and rebellious, God so personally loved us that he became one of us to take the blame and punishment for our sin, so that we could inherit his personal estate. And this passage emphasizes that he did this before we repented, not after. He demonstrated his love to really bad people in spite of our unrepentant lives, while not ratifying the evil that enslaved us.
God has personally and unilaterally done something in time and space and history that has changed the trajectory of the cosmos. He, by living and dying and rising as a human, has begun an entirely new story for humanity, one with an incredibly happy un-ending. This is why the incarnation is such good news according to the angels who spoke to the shepherds on that otherwise silent night. And the good news is that God loves us and took the sacrificial initiative to rescue us from our addiction to self, sin and Satan. Christmas is about God’s initiating and transforming love for his people, not his Santa-like determination to reward good behavior (though in his grace he does reward faithfulness in many ways).
We must remember this for a couple of reasons. First, we cannot live in the Spirit unless we deeply grasp just how much the Lord loves us and the extent of self-sacrifice he will endure in order to bless and draw us to himself. In Romans 5:3-8 we notice that the Lord loves his enemies profoundly – that’s us. And that he pours his love into our hearts by his Spirit, transforming us into literally new creatures (See Titus 3:3-7; Eph. 2:1-10; 2 Cor. 5:17-21). The work of the Spirit in our souls begins by bringing assurance of God’s personal love and forgiveness. So, walking in the Spirit must at least mean knowing in our deepest hearts that God profoundly loves us. But I wonder how many of us Christians deeply believe that the God of the universe has us in his heart, especially when he lets this age deal us a hand of grief and sorrow, like it did to him? Should we not then meditate long on this amazing love he has for sinners? Yes, and that is one reason to celebrate Christmas.
Second, we will not be able to offer the free gifts of forgiveness and blessing to those who hurt us and owe us unless we radically feel the Lord’s amazing grace (See Matt 18:21-35). We simply must “get” the gospel, the gospel of Christmas, or we will quickly degenerate into Pharisaism, which by the way fits well with Santa Claus theology.
The message of Christmas is the message of the Cross, one of grace and love from God to man. Believe it. Come to the Lord and live in his unfathomable and endless kingdom of humble repentance, faith, hope and love. Then your Christmas will be merry indeed.
Just a thought…
Pastor Rick
