Die Hard - The Greatest Christmas Movie

Die Hard

This morning will be my last Sunday sermon with you all, at least here in person. I say Sunday sermon because I will, obviously, be preaching here on Christmas Eve on Tuesday night as well. But that made my mentality as I was writing it a little different, not dramatically different because the goal of proclaiming Law and Gospel faithfully from the text is still the same, but there was at least a little bit of this idea of “what lesson do I want to leave with them, what do I want to be my ‘last word’ to Edgewater”?

And I settled on something that I don’t think you’ll be able to soon forget, are you ready? The last message I want to leave with you is this - Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie of all time. I’m not even kidding. I want every Christmas, from here on out, for you to remember that my last message to you was that Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie of all time.

A Die Hard Christmas

To explain this, we need to go back a little bit. Holly McClane, this is John McClane’s wife (we’ll get to him later), started working for the Nakatomi Corporation as a real estate agent. She was good at what she did, but ultimately she was a very, very small part of an international corporation. But early on in her career, Holly went to a professional development seminar led by the head of the Nakatomi Corporation. There she picked up on some lessons about the larger corporate world that let her advance a little further in the company, now she was the lead of a team of real estate agents instead of just practicing on her own. Step by step, she listened to the wisdom of others in the company, she took counsel from friends and mentors, and she always kept up to date on the latest trends, and eventually she got a big promotion that took her across the country to work in the corporate offices at Nakatomi Plaza. In fact, on Christmas Eve at the company Christmas party, Holly is celebrated for closing the biggest deal in the history of the company.

And it’s pretty exciting for her, I imagine that if you asked Holly or any of the people around her, they might say that she was doing pretty well. That is, until a gentleman by the name of Hans Gruber shows up to the party with his team of criminals and their weapons. Then, even with all of her accomplishments, she is too little to do anything, she is powerless in the face of this great evil that is there to steal and kill and destroy. It’s at this point that John McClane, the hero of the film, comes into the picture. You see, Holly might have been too little to stop Hans Gruber and his team, but John arrived at Nakatomi Plaza because of her. And John is pretty great, he starts taking out the bad guys. One. By. One. Now, obviously, Hans Gruber takes issue with this. So he starts demanding that someone sell out the cowboy who is killing all his guys. As Holly sits there, with the rest of the captive employees, in a very well furnished lobby that somehow is severely lacking on comfortable seats, some of her colleagues are absolutely clueless as to what is going on. Some of them just want John to stop making trouble and just let the bad guys have what they want. Some of them who put the pieces together encourage Holly to lay low and stay quiet so she doesn’t get singled out by the bad guys. Eventually, Hans Gruber does find out that she is John’s wife, and one of her more weasel-ly colleagues tries to convince her to give him up entirely.

Now, closer to the end of the movie, Hans Gruber makes all of the hostages go up on the roof. They listen because they believe that if they don’t cause trouble, they will be able to escape this whole ordeal unscathed. What they didn’t know at the time, was that Hans had plans to blow up the roof as part of his scheming. Enter John McClane, who shepherds the hostages to safety. In the process of saving them, John ends up in front of Hans Gruber - seemingly out of options and strategies. But even in this hopeless moment, where it seems like the bad guys are going to win, John pulls off the gun that he had taped to his back and puts and end to Hans Gruber and all his schemes.

You’d think that was the end, but no, there is one more intense sequence. One lingering bad guy had hidden himself with the fleeing hostages and was going to attack John McClane, until Sergeant Al Powell stops him in his tracks.

Live Hard

Now, having heard the basics of the story, I want to ask you, in the story of Die Hard, who are you?

Are you John McClane, the man who comes into the story from the most unlikely place to stand tall and shepherd the people to safety with strength, making sure they get to go home safe at night?

Are you Holly McClane, the humble character who is an important motivating connection to the hero?

Are you Hans Gruber, the man consumed with a desire to steal, kill, and destroy?

Are you the man who wanted Holly to give up her husband? The coworker who wanted her to hide and be quiet? The coworker who wants to just go along with the villains believing that will cause the least damage?

Or are you the unnamed character who listens to John McClane and trusts him to take care of the situation, even though you don’t know exactly who he is or how he’s doing what he’s doing?

Now, hopefully you have enough faith in me that you know there’s a point here - my last Sunday sermon for you isn’t actually just a retelling of Die Hard. So let me ask you this, in the prophecy from Micah, who are you?

Are you Bethlehem Ephrathah, who was too little to be among the clans of Judah, but was the clan who Jesus came out of? No, not really.

Are you the ruler in Israel who stands and shepherds His flock in the strength of the Lord? Hopefully none of us has the audacity to claim that title.

Are we people who dwell securely because of Jesus’ work, people who dwell securely because of His greatness, people who are at peace? I believe that we are.

You see, I used Die Hard as the main illustration for this sermon for a couple of reasons. The first is this, a lot of times when we read prophecies like the one from Micah we have this tendency to identify ourselves closely with the hero. We read this and ascribe to ourselves the greatness that belongs to Christ alone. Just like as you were listening to my retelling of Die Hard, you might’ve thought about ways you were similar to John (you wish), or maybe Holly - because even if we’re not the main character we like to be important enough at least to be named. But, at least in this prophecy, we are just one of God’s people who gets to live eternally in the security of His dwelling place. And the second reason is this, Micah tells us that Jesus will shepherd His people in the strength of the Lord, but sometimes we’re tempted to listen to other voices. We’re tempted to listen to the bad guy (hear Hans Gruber or Satan) who says if we just go along with him, it’ll all work out. We’re tempted to listen to the people around us who tell us to reject or turn on our hero. We’re tempted to hide and not associate with the hero for fear of what it might mean for us. But the only way that anyone got out of Nakatomi Plaza was by listening to John McClane, and the only way we receive that eternal dwelling place is by listening to God - with Sergeant Al Powell giving an assist at the end as the Holy Spirit works through the church, through Christian community, through the sacraments, and through God’s Word. And the best part of this example, John McClane saves Christmas free of charge with none of the hostages doing anything to earn it - just like we receive salvation as a gift free of charge without doing anything to earn it.

So yeah, Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie ever. And I’m okay with you thinking every Christmas about how the last Sunday sermon you heard from me was about Die Hard - because Die Hard reminds us that Christ is our shepherd, that His is the only voice we should be listening to, and that He ultimately saves us. It’s in His name, amen.