Advent 2025, Week 4 – Light of Christmas Past/Present/Future, Preview
Will you watch a dramatization of Charles Dickens’ famous A Christmas Carol this holiday season? Some literary scholars believe that Dickens’ source material is one of Jesus’ parables. What parable do you think might have sparked Dickens’ imagination to think about ghosts? Does Jesus have any parables featuring ghosts who help people think about the ramifications of choices in their lives? The answer is at the conclusion of this post.
This week on the blog, we’re going to conclude our Advent series with a theme that has some resonance to Dickens’ ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. But I won’t be mentioning ghosts. Instead, I’m going to be talking about light. For that, we’re going to rely on another famous author. This other famous author is sometimes called the Dr. Seuss of the New Testament. Do you know who I mean? Like Dr. Seuss, this ancient author repeats a lot of simple concepts to make complex ideas understandable. The person I’m referring to writes about light frequently. We’re going to talk about the light of Christmas past, present, and future. First post coming soon.
Oh, and Jesus’ parable that likely inspired Dickens? Luke 16:19–31, The Rich Man & Lazarus. While Jesus doesn’t call them ghosts, the rich man and Lazarus meet Abraham in the afterlife, and have quite an interesting conversation about the meaning of life. Jesus’ original audience would have been shocked that he put the rich man in hell, while Lazarus goes to heaven with Abraham. Why? I try to answer why in this post about the parable.
Photo by Phil Robson on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 