By Ian Wilson
Like millions of Americans, I saw the movie Red One over the Christmas holiday. It was a great film, and like all good stories, it revealed an even deeper truth about the nature of reality. I must warn you that this article will contain numerous spoilers, so if you haven’t seen Red One and are planning to, please read no further.
Red One is a film about Santa Claus and his staff at the North Pole. His head of security (portrayed by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is Callum Drift, who has become rather disenchanted with his job, stating that the naughty list is the longest it has ever been. I think all of us can relate to this feeling; I certainly can. Santa responds by stating that it’s the naughty ones that need love the most. There’s a certain truth to that; “Those who are hardest to love need it the most” as Socrates is reported to have said. Indeed, God Himself demonstrated that on the Cross:
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:6-8
In the film, Santa is portrayed as the benevolent gift-giver; he does not discriminate, or judge, even though he knows about every bad thing everyone has done. He is a father figure, giving gifts to children based on his love for them, and not on merit. This has caused a great deal of friction between himself and the giant, shapeshifting witch Gryla and the demon Krampus. Gryla only sees the naughty deeds – her desire is to punish the evil-doers by placing them in a Glaskäfig: a magic snowglobe which serves as a prison.
Krampus represents the law; this is why Callum Drift finds him in a cemetery. As Romans 7:8-10 says:
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
The Law makes us aware of our sin and the debt we owe God for our misdeeds. The Law is death to us.
Santa plays very much the role of the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son; generous and merciful to the people who deserve it the least. Gryla and Krampus, meanwhile, are more like the other son; bitter and resentful. They do not comprehend Santa’s kindness to unworthy, naughty children. They desire nothing more than to punish. And ironically, their desire to punish evil has cast them as the villains of the story. It is that desire to punish that puts us even further away from God than the public degenerates. It put me in mind of a quote from C.S. Lewis’ brilliant book, Mere Christianity:
“The pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and back-biting, the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. This is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But of course, it is better to be neither.”
It is this smug, self-righteousness that twists Gryla and Krampus into the horrible monsters they appear as in the film. We must be careful to guard against self-righteousness in the knowledge that we, too, are on the “naughty list”. We must guard against an over-zealous desire to punish the naughty; it will twist your soul into something devilish.
Rather, it is necessary to remember that it is God’s kindness that works repentance, as Romans 3:3 & 4 says:
And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
It is a great sin to despise the riches of God’s mercy toward sinners; He causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. He is slow to anger and abundant in kindness. It is a useful thing to be aware of one’s debt to God, recognizing your own wretchedness before Him so that we are not so harsh in our judgement of the ungodly.
Now, do not read this as an antinomian manifesto; Romans is clear that we should not continue in sin, but we should rather strive to be free of its influence. This is what it means to be free from the law. But it is God’s mercy and kindness that gives us the ability to be free from sin; not our efforts, nor the punishments of the Law. This is the hardest part of the Christian gospel.
LogoSophia Magazine 