Jesus' Closest Approach to Santa Claus

JESUS' CLOSEST APPROACH TO SANTA CLAUS

Tues. Dec. 18th, 2018

Jesus' closest approach to Santa Claus is in Luke 11:13.  Here is the context in the King James Version:

Luke 11:11  If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if [he ask] a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?  12  Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?  13  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more shall [your] heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Verse 13 begins with the word If.  But the line of Jesus' argument implies that the answer is yes. Therefore we can leave out the word "if"; and changing "ye" to you all, we can derive:

            You all then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children.

That's where Santa Claus comes in.  My wife has set up a sign in the living room of our house that says:

Four Stages of Life

1. You really believe in Santa

2. You really don't believe in Santa

3. You think you're Santa

4. You look like Santa

The first stage is childhood; the second stage is teenage; the last stage is old age; but the third stage is parenthood.

Jesus said "You know how to give good gifts to your children" (even though you are evil).  In the third stage, You think you're Santa, because you know how to give gifts to your children; and Santa Claus presides over the gift-giving at Christmas time, because according to his story, Santa Claus is the supervisor of the toymakers and the deliverer of the toys to children.

The custom of giving gifts to children at Christmas time is a good custom. It is a custom which began in what the ancestors called Christendom, that is, the continents and regions where Christianity is or was the dominant faith.  Of course!  Because Christendom was where Christmas was first celebrated.  From Christians, the custom spread naturally to atheists, since many Christians have atheist children (whom I -- I walk by faith -- will see in heaven).

It will always be a good custom -- in other words, if Christians abandon this custom, and it is continued only by atheists, Muslims, Jews, and people of other faiths, it will still be a good custom!

But in Luke 11:13, Jesus, by implication, gives his followers permission to give their children presents.  It is the closest the Bible comes to referring to Santa Claus.

Frank Newton