History gives us three Eves of Christ : the night before he is born , the night before he is crucified , and the night before he rises . Three befores , three afters . A birth , a death , a resurrection . Three times the world is irreversibly changed .
On one of those eves , Jesus rightfully predicts that Peter will deny him three times . Peter protests , “ Even if I have to die with you , I will never disown you ” ( Matt . 26:35 ). But , of course , he does .
So too in this opening scene , Scrooge passes up three opportunities to acknowledge Christmas .
First , he is greeted by his affable nephew , Fred , who generously invites Scrooge to spend Christmas with him and his family . ( We get the impression that this is an annual occurrence , both the invitation and the refusal .) This is where Scrooge utters his first iconic “ Humbug !”
Next , his offices are visited by the gentlemen soliciting businesses for charitable donations : “ Some slight provision for the Poor and destitute , who suffer greatly . . .”
These poor guys have no idea what they ’ re getting into , asking Ebenezer Scrooge to donate to the “ hundreds of thousands . . . in want of common comforts .” Perhaps Marley was a softer touch back in the day , but Marley ’ s been gone these seven years . Not only does Scrooge offer “ Nothing !”; his solution to poverty in London is to send the poor to prisons and workhouses . When one of the gentlemen says that many would rather die than go to such places , Scrooge delivers his most hate-filled denial of Christmas : “‘ If they would rather die ,’ said Scrooge , ‘ they had better do it , and decrease the surplus population .’”
The line that follows , though , speaks to his denial . He says , after being confronted with the plight of the poor in his city , “ Besides — excuse me — I don ’ t know that .”
To which the gentleman says , “ But you might know it .”
And Scrooge replies , “ It ’ s not my business . It ’ s enough for a man to understand his own business , and not to interfere with other people ’ s . Mine occupies me constantly .”
So too does the apostle Peter , when a servant girl confronts him , observes him , looks at him closely , and says she saw him with Jesus of Nazareth . Peter says , “ I don ’ t know . . . what you ’ re talking about ” ( Mark 14:68 ). He dismisses her just as Scrooge dismisses Fred and the gentlemen . Peter denies knowing Christ ; Scrooge denies knowing the means to be Christlike .
Peter , all wound up in panic and guilt and fear , escalated the tone of his third response .
A little later some of the other bystanders confronted Peter and said , “ Surely you are one of them , for you are a Galilean .” He began to call down curses on himself and swore to them , “ I don ’ t know this man you ’ re talking about .” Immediately the rooster crowed a
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