Johann Quisumbing

A Christmas Message by JQuisumbing

Every year since the early 60s, I re-acquaint myself with the good ol’ time Christmas tale, “A Christmas Carol” written in 1843 by English novelist Charles Dickens. It is a tradition that I never tire of doing. The first time I heard it or I should say, watched it, was with my family when we lived in Santa Rosa, California. It was there I experienced my first white Christmas. Picture a family of ten, huddled together in front of an old fashioned black/white TV waiting for a Christmas program that our Dad really wanted us to watch. He set the stage that night. We all had our hot cocoa and popcorn. The lights were turned off except from the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree and the warm glow from the fireplace. Oh and let us not forget, it was snowing outside. Then, after a few usual commercials, the Christmas TV movie came on. I was expecting a movie like Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, Jack Frost or even Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Instead, the title on the TV screen read, “Scrooge”. If I recall correctly, I think we watched the 1951 film adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” starring the late Alastair Sim. It was a ghost story. 

A Ghost story at Christmas! I always hated horror movies. Most times, when watching a horror film, I would be hiding behind my hands peeking through my fingers. (By the way, I still do that even today. Hahaha!) Anyway, I could not help but wonder why they would be showing a scary movie during Christmas time. But thank goodness, this ghostly movie was not like any other horror films. In a nutshell, the movie was about how on Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge, a cantankerous miser who considered Christmas as a big ‘humbug’, was visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and other spirits of Christmas. Their purpose was to show Scrooge the evil in his ways and ultimately reveal his eternal destination which was more down than up. After their visits, Scrooge saw his mistakes and became a kinder, gentler man and lived happily ever after. [If you haven’t seen this movie ever, Youtube has four or five versions worth watching. Of course, nothing beats reading the book.]

It is a feel-good story. It started out dark but ended the way we liked, in the light. But to most, it is still fantasy. So, the minister in me cannot help but steer you to the spiritual side of Dickens’ tale.

Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character of the story but I would like to focus on the ghost of Jacob Marley who eerily materialized before Scrooge on Christmas Eve. Scrooge, shaking in fear, asked him, “Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?” In response, the ghost said, “I am here to-night to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate.” The fate that Jacob Marley was referring to was the great possibility of his torturous eternal existence in hell of which if Scrooge continued to live his life as is, he would eventually end up there just like him. 

From a spiritual point of view, Jacob Marley’s message is more or less spot on. In fact, in Luke 16, Jesus told a tale (a parable) of His own some two thousand years ago and one of the characters in His story was a Jacob Marley like rich man who died and ended up in hell. Only, in this story, the doomed rich man does not make a ghostly appearance into the world of the living to warn them of the error of their ungodly ways. That message can only be found in the words of Scripture and the author is the Lord.

What lessons must we take from both stories? 

• Hell is a place of eternal damnation and there is no escape once there.
• It is a place where one imperatively must avoid and this can only be done while alive.

I know. For Christmas time, this is quite dark and no fun. But then, how could you appreciate the Good News (the Gospel) unless you realize your part in the Bad News. When you, after enduring a long, dark and tumultuous thunder storm, do you not welcome the sun when it breaks through the clouds with joy? So, let us look at the Good News.

Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in hope to change the minds and hearts of men who were so lost. His main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, did heed the warnings of the spirits that visited him that one night. The morning came, which was Christmas Day, and Scrooge was totally a transformed man as any Christian should when converted. Folks always enjoy this. Well afterall, A Christmas Carol is supposed to be a feel-good tale. However, as a minister, I found that Dickens’ story is somewhat lacking in the spiritual aspect of the transformation itself which is imperative to escape eternal damnation and enter into God’s Heavenly Kingdom. It is only then that the unexplainable joy that Scrooge reflected can be truly and genuinely experienced by all.

I should know. That same joy I felt when the Lord changed me [by the placing of His Spirit into me, making me into a new creation], still sustains me and even more to this day.  And by the way, I am extremely JOYFUL even as I am a quadriplegic.

Jacob Marley represents an important and crucial warning to those who need to repent their downward spiraling lives. But because this is Christmas time, I want to tell you of the appearance of another spirit. His name is Gabriel, the angel of the Lord, who came before a priest, a virgin and a group of shepherds tending their sheep declaring this one message…

The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!

Luke 2:11 

I can tell you this with certainty, those in Jacob Marley’s predicament would forever regret that they did not listen to the Christmas Spirit.

Do not wait! Seek out The Savior – our Lord JESUS CHRIST and Rejoice!

My wife, friends and I wish you all with a very BLESSED CHRISTMAS.