We have just returned home after an eventful few days in the Channel Island of Jersey. We were there to visit our family and take gifts ahead of Christmas, but we found this island community, best known for its dairy herd (above), potato crops and finance industry, plunged into shock and grief by a double tragedy. At the end of last week the ferry from the UK and Guernsey collided with a Jersey fishing trawler and the crew of 3 fishermen appear lost presumed dead. In the early hours of Saturday morning this was followed by a massive explosion in the capital, St Helier, in which it is now known that 9 are dead, and possibly a few more will be found in the wreckage of their apartment building, almost certainly devastated by a gas blast. We stood quietly with thousands of islanders in Jersey this morning at 11am in a one minute silence to mark the sense of loss, grief and sadness that has engulfed this small community.
It is strange that Christmas so often seems marked by tragedy. I remember the Penlee lifeboat disaster from the 19th December 1981, and the downing of the PanAm flight 103 on December 21st 1988. Perhaps that is because our emotions are heightened in this season as we think of family far away and indulge in a bit of communal nostalgia, but it seems unjust for pain and grief to mar our anticipation of this special time of the year, or intrude upon our planning for the festivities. And yet - and yet this brings the true message of Christmas so much more into focus for us. The first 'noel' was marked by the pain of rejection, poverty and violence. Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus were forced to flee to Egypt as refugees shortly after the birth. Every baby boy under 2 years of age was brutally murdered in the area of Bethlehem as vicious murder squads fulfilled the orders of an insecure, drunken overlord, King Herod. Why didn't God prevent that?
The 'silent stars' and melody of the 'angelic host' soon gave way to the howls of bitter sorrow from the mothers of Judah, and the screams of their infant sons. The road ahead of the infant Christ was already marked by blood. Why?
As we wrap ourselves in the warmth and familiarity of Christmas, we should never forget that God could not prevent the pain. Not if he was going to achieve the very reason for the season. Christ Jesus came into the world to save. He came to intervene in the headlong rush of mankind into a life and an eternity devoid of hope. Like the emergency services that have rushed to the aid of those affected by these unseasonal tragedies, Jesus came to bring us rescue and life, not just warm good wishes and a few cheery carols.
So, if you are in pain this Christmas, or grieving and alone, please know that Jesus came for you, to be with you in your need, and offers you and me his life, death and resurrection as God's response to the tragedies that so often mark this time of the year.
