You do special things; buy presents for your kids and what do you end up with? Tears. Fighting and fits of jealousy. “How come he got that?! Why didn’t I get one that big?!” How did it come to this? We were happier when we had less. Now we’ve bought what they begged and the home is miserable. Christmas day. A day to celebrate or commiserate?
I thought I’d share a little of my approach to preparing a live show in the hope that others might find some inspiration and guidance when it comes to teaching a Christmas message themselves. As you can see from the above, we’ve got some pretty decent fodder for an introduction. I mean parents are gonna love it and kids can’t help but see a bit of their own reflection. But preparing a show doesn’t start here. I never begin with a cool intro and then go to the Bible text. That comes last. If you start with an intro you’ll almost certainly be reading what you want into a text rather than letting the text speak into your heart and your context.
First, I take a unit of text for consideration, on this occasion it’s the account of the wise men (Matthew 2). I translated it, reading the whole of Matthew, researched the story outside the Bible and prayed and reflected over what I’d read. You gotta let God shine his light into your heart and illuminate that text. The gospels were written so we might turn away from our rejection of God and put our trust in His Son, Jesus. So as we read the stories in the gospels the proper adoration of ‘the Holy One’ is where we must end up, but how do we get there?
The story of the wise men’s journey in Matthew 2 reveals at least two, main responses to Jesus. King Herod and the wise men. So, the big question we should present to people is ‘who are you?’ Are you a wise man or a Herod?
[caption id="attachment_165" align="aligncenter" width="208" caption="Star Struck"]
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The text makes us distance ourselves emotionally from Herod, we are meant to ‘like’ the wise men and follow their behaviour. So we need to follow that emotional vein and end up where the wise men end up. However, there’s a lot to be gained by immersing oneself and your audience in the character of Herod. To really appreciate what the Bible has to offer, it helps to have empathy even with the characters we don’t like.
King Herod was now old and desperate to hold on to his kingdom and began removing anyone who seemed a threat. Rather than dismiss the news of the appearance of the messiah’s star, (as the Jews seemed to do, but we’ll leave them out for simplicities sake), Herod took it very seriously and took measures to deal with the competition swiftly.
Children automatically assume they are the centre of attention. Children instinctively seek the biggest for themselves of whatever is on offer whether it is a drink, piece of pie or the gifts under the tree on Christmas night. It’s something children grow out of, right? I mean adults don’t do this…do they?
When someone is shining brighter than we are it is easy to be envious and try and diminish their glow. We might, like Herod, feel threatened, that our position, our job, our role will be put in question. You can have a tantrum or try to steal some of their limelight. You can put them down, slander them, undermine them or just have them killed as Herod did, or tried to do. While we are rightly repelled by Herod’s behaviour, if we look closely we will see that we are not so different from him. Envious of others progress, unable to celebrate our neighbour’s success, that’s being an Aussie isn’t it? As Australians we love to cut down the tall poppy. You see the story shows us quite clearly that children aren’t the only ones to be ‘star struck’ with their own self importance.
Yet as the wise men showed it is far better in life to build up and praise others when their praise is due. It's an important paradigm. In life we need to be able to celebrate other people's success, not begrudge them of it. If the praise fits, shout it. There is a time to sing and a time to dance for others. There is a time for someone else to get a bigger present. Furthermore, as the Lord said, ‘it is better to give than to receive’. Most significantly, there is one who rightly deserves everyone’s praise and adoration: Jesus. This is because of who he is and what he has come to do. He is God’s son, who will lovingly lay his life down for his subjects so they can inherit eternal life.
Unfortunately, our sinful human nature makes us want to retain our independence from God, maintain our sovereignty, our little castle, just as Herod did. We try to ignore and hide from the light that shone on Christmas night. We may even try to shut down the light and persecute the light. But ultimately our deeds will be exposed and our futile independence from our maker will be shown to be a destructive dead end.
Yet the wise men from the East show us the appropriate response. Struck by the new star shining bright in the East they were not repelled by it, but drawn to it. They followed it to Jerusalem and sought help to locate the King to whom it belonged. Why? They wanted to worship him. They wanted to adore him. They knew that they owed their very existence and future to God's King. They knew this baby, born at Christmas, deserved all the light and the service of their lives.
So by focusing on the two main characters, you can really take people into the heart of the story, hold a mirror up to our own brokenness, but also shine a light that draws people toward the source of life.
This Christmas season, Anton’s Antics will be performing the Christmas show ‘Star Struck’ that follows the story of Herod and the wise men’s discover of Jesus. You can also purchase sticker stories for kids to do in church on Christmas day under the same title from Anton’s Antic’s online shop. For bookings contact Stephen through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or M: 0425659966. For christmas sticker stories go to www.antonsantics.com/shop
