When my wife Marlene wanted to see the movie "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," I willingly joined her. I’d read Barbara Robinson’s 1972 book long ago and seen it presented as a play.
I’ve left many theaters saying the book was better than the movie, but this time Marlene and I agreed that the movie is better than the book.
The setting is a small town named Emmanuel, where, since time immemorial, a local church has presented a Christmas pageant. The story’s narrator is an elementary school girl named Beth Bradley, whose mother agrees to direct the pageant this particular year. But the focus is on the Herdmans, a family of six troublemaker kids who live in a shack, abandoned by their father and neglected by their mother, while eldest sibling, teenager, and tough-as-nails (or so she thinks) Imogene raises them.
“The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world,” Beth explains. “They lied and stole and smoked cigars (even the girls) and talked dirty and hit little kids and cussed their teachers and took the name of the Lord in vain and set fire to Fred Shoemaker’s old broken-down toolhouse.” The Herdman kids were “six skinny, stringy-haired kids all alike except for being different sizes and having different black-and-blue places where they had clonked each other.”
But when the Herdmans show up to church for free refreshments, a lack of volunteers lands them in most of the pageant’s major roles. The church and the community are scandalized! The Herdmans will make the pageant a disaster, and having Imogene play the Virgin Mary borders on blasphemy.
They know nothing about the Bible or the Christmas story, so Beth’s mother explains it very patiently. One asks, “What were the wise men, schoolteachers?”
“They were kings,” Beth’s mother answers.
“Well, it’s about time,” Imogene mutters. “Maybe they’ll tell the innkeeper where to get off, and get the baby out of the barn.”
During the rehearsals, the Herdman kids are suspected of stealing Sunday school crayons, emptying the birthday piggy bank, and smoking in the girls’ room. And Beth’s mother must use a doll for the baby Jesus because no mother will entrust her baby to Imogene Herdman.
The last rehearsal is even worse than the first, as the church is evacuated because of a fire. Everyone assumes the fire was caused by Imogene smoking in the girls’ room, but it turns out it was burned applesauce cake.
Brushing off suggestions from nearly everyone that the pageant be canceled, Beth’s mother says, “It’s going to be the best Christmas pageant we’ve ever had!”
“Of all the lies she’d told so far, that was the biggest, but you had to admire her,” Beth narrates. “It was like General Custer saying, ‘Bring on the Indians!’”
And although the pastor worries that no one will come to the pageant, Beth writes, “But he was wrong. Everybody came … to see what the Herdmans would do.”
The Herdmans arrive – almost late – and Imogene holds the baby Jesus doll with a ferocity that dares anyone to take him from her. But Beth observed that, during the singing of “Silent Night,” “Imogene Herdman was crying. In the candlelight, her face was all shiny with tears, and she didn’t even bother to wipe them away. She just sat there – awful old Imogene – in her crookedy veil, crying and crying and crying.”
What happened to Imogene? She was caught up in the moment. The timeless Christmas story shone above Imogene’s sorry existence and she would never be the same. Softened by the baby Jesus, she cast off the old Imogene and became a new person.
So, what made this movie version of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” so special? Why is it better than the book?
In part, it is the cast of characters – children, so realistic and believable that they could come from your own neighborhood (well, out of the Herdmans’ neighborhood). The movie gives insight into who those kids were and how they grew that way. As the Herdman siblings argue whether to stay with the pageant, one of them notes that this is one time in their miserable lives that they can pretend to be someone else, someone with a life better than their own.
Just as God always uses flawed instruments (like you and me) to advance His purposes, so He used the “worst kids in the history of the world” to bring the message of Christ to the town of Emmanuel, by bringing them the best Christmas pageant ever.
It also shows the possibility of redemption through the baby Jesus. Unlike many other movies this time of year, movies about the holidays without Christmas or Christmas without Jesus, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” is unabashedly about Christmas. The church plays a central role in the movie, and the central feature of the pageant is the baby Jesus.
As much as I enjoyed the movie, I must ask: Is something missing?
I think so. “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” is spot on as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go quite far enough.
My point is this: Nobody is saved by the baby Jesus, even if we recognize that that baby is the Word made flesh, the incarnate Son of God. We are saved because that divine baby grew into adulthood, fulfilled the Law (active obedience), and then died on the cross (passive obedience) to pay the penalty for our sins.
Yes, I said “penalty for our sins.” “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” the prophet Isaiah tells us (53:6). And that’s why God sent Jesus into space and time: “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
Without Christmas, Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday would be impossible.
But without Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, Christmas would be meaningless.
I’m not saying they should rewrite the movie script. Sometimes the purpose of a Christian movie is not to present the full story of sin and salvation, but rather to whet the viewer’s interest and stimulate a desire to learn more.
Bring your family to see “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” Enjoy it and absorb its message. But remember that this is only the beginning of our inquiry into faith. We carry it further by digging into the Word of God.
Yes, the movie is better than the book. But THE BOOK is better than either.
Colonel Eidsmoe serves as Professor of Constitutional Law for the Oak Brook College of Law & Government Policy (obcl.edu), as Senior Counsel for the Foundation for Moral Law (morallaw.org), and as pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church (woodlandpca.org). He may be contacted for speaking engagements at eidsmoeja@juno.com.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
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