Crossway Baptist Church in Springfield recently put on a production of “The Gospel According to Scrooge.” Pictures of the production on social media looked amazing, and I only wish I could have made it to Springfield to see the show. After all, Charles Dickens’ classic book, The Christmas Carol, has been one of my favorite books for many years, and I love watching film and theatre productions of the story each year at Christmastime.
This year, another story has joined The Christmas Carol on my list of holiday favorites. The story itself has nothing in particular to do with Christmas. But the short story, Leo Tolstoy’s “What Men Live By,” feels to me like a Christmas story. Perhaps, its homely protagonists – the humble cobbler Simon and his wife, Matryona, who endure simple lives in penury – bring to mind the equally humble Bob Cratchit and his kindly family in The Christmas Carol. Perhaps, the story also reminds me of another Christmas classic – namely, the film “It’s a Wonderful Life” – featuring an angel sent to earth.
There’s another reason this story resonates with the spirit of Christmas, but it may take some explanation.
“What Men Live By” begins in the bleak midwinter, when the shoemaker Simon discovers along the roadside a young man, naked and freezing from the cold. Despite fear and poverty, Simon and his wife entertain the stranger, teaching him a trade and welcoming him into their home for a number of years. Only later do they realize that they have welcomed an angel into their home – an angel sent to earth to learn the answer to three questions: What dwells in man? What is not given to man? And what do men live by?
From the kindness of these strangers, the angel learns what dwells in man – namely, love. Through the pride of a wealthy nobleman, he later learns what is not given to humans – namely, knowledge of their own needs or the hour of death.
Finally, he learns what men live by: “I have learnt that all men live not by care for themselves but by love,” the angel tells Simon and his wife.
“I knew before that God gave life to men and desires that they should live; now I understood more than that,” the angel explains. “I understood that God does not wish men to live apart, and therefore he does not reveal to them what each one needs for himself; but he wishes them to live united, and therefore reveals to each of them what is necessary for all.
“I have now understood that though it seems to men that they live by care for themselves, in truth it is love alone by which they live. He who has love is in God, and God is in him, for God is love.”
The truths spoken by this fictional angel are permeated with the spirit of Christmas. For as a Christmas carol written by poet Christina Rossetti says:
“Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine,
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.”
In a society that has watered down, corrupted and redefined “love,” it’s important to remember that Christ Jesus is Love incarnate, and Christians truly know love and love one another because He died for us and dwells in us. The apostle John made this truth clear in his first epistle:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:7-11).
I hope these words resonate in your mind this Christmas, and I hope God’s love fills your heart. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!