Joyeux Noel

  We have watched a lot of Christmas movies this year.  Most I have already seen and a few I wished I hadn’t, (thanks Tim Allen).  Every single one has the same theme, remember the true meaning of Christmas.  So much so that it’s become a Christmas cliché like Rudolph or Rockefeller Center.  Charlie Brown swears to us he wont let his Christmas become ruined by commercialism right before the network cuts to commercial so Old Navy can remind us to buy their clothes or how happy our wives will be with a gift from Kay Jewelers.  It's barely past Halloween and our kids are inundated with ads for toys they must have.  Even though we turned off the cable our 4 year still knows the hottest toys out there and where we can get them.  “They have it at Target dad”.  (I somewhat agree with Lucy, in her theory, that Christmas is run by a big Eastern conglomerate.)  And still, throughout the ads, the songs and the countdowns were reminded, “Don’t forget the true meaning of Christmas...”


But I don’t think I have ever been moved by a Christmas movie like i was when  i watched, Joyeux Noël.  Throughout the busyness of the season, you will benefit from turning off “Jingle all the Way” and taking some time to watch this story of warring soldiers literally act out the meaning of Christmas.  It will put some perspective on the season, especially since this story is based on real events.


On Christmas Eve, 1914 in France, warring French, German and Scottish soldiers declared an impromptu cease fire in honor of Christmas.  These men, who were trying to kill each other the day before, left their trenches and joined together to play soccer, drink together and share stories about their families with one another.  They experienced peace.  They experienced the true meaning of Christmas.  We celebrate Christmas to honor Christ’s birth and that’s often seen as the true meaning of Christmas, but beyond the birth there was a reason to why He came.  The angle declared it to the Sheppard’s, in Luke, chapter 2, saying, and “…I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.  Today….a savior has been born” and then in verse 14, “…and on earth peace to men…”  Christ was born so that He could die for us so we don’t have to die.
These soldiers put down their arms and celebrated that gift; the gift of peace and life.  It seems a fitting tribute to the meaning of Christmas.  If, even just briefly, the absence of violence and war can honor Christ’s gift to us, then it’s a testament that it can be done in this world.  If these men, ordered to kill one another, can forgive each other to share a few hours honoring God’s gift, than perhaps that parking spot you're sure was rightfully yours wasn’t that big of deal after all.


In the film, one of the German soldiers says that the killing will be “more meaningless now than it was yesterday”.  The word meaningless triggered the words of Ecclesiastes in my head.  And if our lives on this earth truly are meaningless; than the idea of killing each other seems an even more futile way to spend our days.


God created us to enjoy this earth but ultimately to love Him and to spend eternity with Him.  But our time is often spent meaningless.  It’s spent fighting and frustrated and desiring the physical instead of the spiritual.  Not all of us will go to war.  I have never been in the military and feel somewhat of a hypocrite as I write about war.  I never have been close to knowing what it is like.  Instead I have slept soundly within the quite blanket of suburban America.  But I have seen the cost of war.  The other night I watched my daughter jumping on her bed, laughing full of innocence and her heart filled with the excitement of Christmas.  My daughter, whose namesake was born out of the cost of war.
I feel sad as my daughter grows older that the harsh reality of this life will ultimately try to twist her “true meaning” of Christmas into a watered down version that starts at Costco in August and then fades away to Valentines Day.  I hope that her mother and I can instill in her a deeper meaning.  That the peace and innocence she carries, (unaware of the harshness of the world around her), that it will somehow spill out and soften this world in someway.


At the end of the film the soldiers involved in their unauthorized cease-fire are reprimanded by men who carry leadership roles but who were not privy to witness the miracle of peace or the brutality of the previous fighting.  It’s ironic that those who command the killing were not there to do the killing or enjoy the peace.  But maybe most disturbing was the priest who sees the war as a cleansing of evil.  He sees the enemy who deserves to die and whose death is, in the priests eyes, is justified by God, himself.  How many of us as Christians justify our actions because we are on “God’s side”?
So tonight as you slumber, with warm Christmas thoughts dancing through your head…I would encourage you to consider the idea of “Peace on earth and goodwill towards men” And perhaps, like those soldiers, break rank for just few minutes and practice peace however you can.  Those men experienced something that only they can relate too but if maybe we all try to experience what they had; the true meaning of Joyeux Noël will last a little longer than our tree.  God sent his Son to save us and that’s what we celebrate this time of year.  What better way to observe that act than with our own actions of love; peace on earth and goodwill to men.




-dave