Christmas with Luther – Santa Claus take a walk down Naughty and Nice theology. Is this how the world works? Is this how our God works?!
Kris Kringle
Tracing back the tradition of Santa Claus is a muddy path. Each culture had some kind of imaginary figure who brought good things to good children. And some cultures even had a negative figure in Krampus who brought bad things to bad children. Luther looked at the Roman Catholic festival of St. Nich on the 6th of December. People gave gifts in his honor and even prayed to St. Nich. This is not Scriptural. To fight St. Nich, Luther started a new tradition of the Christ Child. The German is Christkindl. That evolved into Kris Kingle 🤦♀️. Even though Luther’s intentions were pure, he simply added fuel to the fire of the Santa cultural soup.
Santa Theology
He’s making a list. He’s checking it twice. He’s going to find out who’s naught or nice. That, in a nutshell, is Santa theology. You’re either naughty or nice. The problem with this is motivation. And this is also why I love Krampus. What is the difference between a threat and a reward? Not much. Both are Law motivation. That means that I get something, or maybe have something taken away, depending on my performance. This is how the world works. This is precious little comfort when dealing with our God. Santa theology isn’t based on the gospel of Jesus. Jesus doesn’t love, or not love, us on the basis of our performance. Jesus loves us no matter how naughty we might have been. That’s called grace. There is nothing gracious about ‘ole St. Nich.
Want to hear more? Watch this week’s study for the season, Christmas with Luther – Santa Claus.
Please click HERE for the the Bible class slides.