What Would Jesus Say!?
December 12, 2011I was watching the Daily Show on December 8th when I saw something that just totally blew me away (you can watch the 19 second clip here: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-december-8-2011/moment-of-zen—what-would-jesus-say-). Once you watch the clip, keep reading.
It’s shocking to me how people are so sure of what Jesus would do or say. Most people do so without really knowing (or caring) about what Jesus already said and who he was. The lady in the video proudly says: “…maybe he would say I miss hearing you say Merry Christmas.” Sorry, I don’t think Jesus would be pre-occupied with such a thing. Let’s forget for a second that Jesus was Jewish and that Christmas wouldn’t be in His vocabulary anyway.
What is wrong with Happy Holidays anyway? Well, from the Etymology Online Dictionary, we learn that the word “holiday” came from the Old English word “haligdæg” which basically means “holy day”. Thus, Happy Holidays can be translated to “Happy Holy Day”. With this little bit of enlightenment, it makes perfect sense to wish someone a Happy Holiday when referring to Christmas, Easter, or any other “Holy day” (the Old English use actually used haligdæg as the word for the Sabbath (used during approx. the 1500s).
To be honest, the word meaning doesn’t really matter and Jesus would probably agree as well. I for one think that Merry Christmas gets a little lost anyway. I remember a boycott campaign for Target back in 2006 because they used the phrase “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” in their advertising. While many of the Christian community might disagree, I am ok with it (I may not have been then, but I would be should it have happened today). Why such an absurd call to action? Do we really need a retailer such as Target or Walmart to justify our faith? These companies only say “Merry Christmas” because they want your money, plain and simple. The fact that they use Merry Christmas at all suggests that Christians spend a lot of money this time of year (and these retailers know this). So of course, they want to keep the spenders happy and wish you a Merry Christmas. They don’t care about Christ, they just want your money. Because of the meaning behind it, it really has no meaning at all.
So what would Jesus say? What would He do? He would probably wonder why all this “shopping” was going on while people are starving. Giving and exchanging gifts is not a bad or evil thing to do. But if the question must be raised about what Christ would do, then we need to face reality. Billions of dollars are spent on things we don’t really need while real hurting people are dying of starvation by the millions. Would Jesus really be concerned about Happy Holidays versus Merry Christmas? We need to stop putting words in Jesus mouth and just do what He already said to do.
Remember, if everything you do is to the Glory of the Lord, then Happy Holidays is just as fitting as Merry Christmas. I for one hope everyone has a very Happy Holiday season, whatever Holiday you choose to celebrate.
