The Grinch and the Gospel: Three things we can learn from Whoville

The Grinch doesn't even get nearly enough credit as a criminal mastermind.

Think about it. He "stole" Christmas from a whole town! And think about how he did it. He wore a costume associated with extravagant giving to do extravagant stealing. 


How gangster is that? Just imagine if you took your kids to sit on Santa's lap at the mall and when your kid came back 20 bucks was missing out of his or her pocket. Pretty clever, right?

Usually whenever I watch or read a story - and The Grinch That Stole Christmas is one of my favorites - it reminds me of the one big theme in the Bible. God had a rescue plan in place to redeem fallen humanity through the person and work of His only Son Jesus Christ. We call that the gospel.

Here are three gospel truths we learn in the Grinch story.

1. We, like the Grinch, have a heart problem. We've established that the Grinch was an evil genius. The narrator tells us why the Grinch was an evil genius. His heart was defective. The Bible explains we have the same problem. There is no love for God in our hearts.

2. If our joy comes from stuff, our joy can leave with stuff, too. The Grinch was an evil genius, but his plan had a fatal flaw. He assumed he could steal something that couldn't be stolen; the spirit of Christmas. The true key to joy is make sure your joy is rooted in something that can't be taken from you. We know from scripture that Christ's love is something no one or no thing can ever take from us.

3. Heart change always proceedS life change. The Grinch ended up eating dinner at a house he robbed a day earlier. How does that happen? It was clear that it wasn't the same Grinch. We learn in the Bible that the gospel changes us internally. Christ lived a perfect life and died a subsitutionary death in our place so we could experience true heart change. He gives us new hearts, filled with affection for God, the way hearts are supposed to function. Just like the Grinch, our new hearts lead to new actions. But it is always in that order. Hearts change first. Actions follow.

I write these blogs as a way to start conversations. What is your favorite Christmas story and why? Or just give feedback on this blog post.

Chris Lassiter is a Christ-follower, a husband to Emily (read her amazing guest blog post on forgiveness here), a father to five crazy but wonderful kids, and a Young Life leder in his hometown of Staunton, VA. He was written for VIBE, Rapzilla.com, Young Life Relationships, JamTheHype.com, HipHopDX.com and other publications. Moody Publishing recently released his first book, You're Grounded, which you can purchase here.

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