The Christmas Truce of 1914
An illustration showing British and German troops fraternizing on the battlefield in December 1914., Mary Evans Picture Library/Alamy
Whatever Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip hoped to accomplish when he pulled the trigger of his pistol, he certainly could not have imagined that his actions would lead to World War I. His bullets would kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Their assassination would lead to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia only a month later. At great cost, the Allied Powers of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan, and the United States would eventually claim victory. Because of weapon advancements and trench warfare, the fighting would bring unprecedented destruction. By the war's end, the fighting had claimed the lives of more than 16 million people.
The miseries of World War I were exceptional because of the extended time soldiers fought from trenches. The trenches offered cover from enemy fire, but the safety they provided came with compounding miseries. Soldiers would occupy these narrow gashes in the earth for weeks at a time. The trenches were wet, cold, and unsanitary. Trench foot was a common malady where constant exposure to wetness caused dead tissue to spread across a soldier's foot, causing great pain and sometimes resulting in amputation. In addition, the stress of living and fighting in the trenches is believed to have caused trench mouth, a gum infection. What was then known as shell shock was common among those who lived every day in the intolerable conditions of the trenches. Death was ever-present in and around the trenches. Many would die in the "No Man's Land" that separated the opposing army's trenches. Many would also die in the miserable conditions of the trenches themselves.
The first Christmas of the war came five months after the war began. As soldiers sat in their wet and muddy trenches, they anticipated that Christmas day would come and go as so many days before had been spent. However, as darkness fell over the battlefield on Christmas Eve, British soldiers began to hear singing. The German soldiers were singing Christmas carols. The British soldiers heard familiar melodies emanating across the battle-scarred earth where so many had died, and some corpses still lay where they fell. They listened. Some even added their voice to the strange choir. Singing would lead to invitations, and miraculously the soldiers eventually climbed out of their muddy holes and met one another in "No Man's Land," to celebrate Christmas together. There were handshakes, sharing of cigarettes and cigars, and most importantly, a momentary pause in the exchange of gunfire. Diaries and letters to loved ones back home told of makeshift Christmas trees being erected and decorated, soccer games, and other joint activities in stark contrast to the context and location. The momentary relief from the prosecution of war also allowed both sides to collect their dead.
In 1914 new technology had provided armies with weapons that could kill and maim on a scale never before experienced. The carnage of the war would set into motion things that the leaders who led their countries into it could have never anticipated. The soldiers hemmed in by walls of dirt and separated from their enemy by as little as 50 yards would pay the greatest price as the world awakened to these new realities. And though the war would last until the summer of 1919, the soldiers in the trenches that first Christmas found a way, even in the chaos of the battlefield, to broker a cease-fire, a truce, and a moment of peace, even if it was only for a few hours.
It is an amazing event. It seems absurd to envision men wearing uniforms of opposing armies, standing on ground stripped of natural beauty by the exercises of war and adorned with barbed wire and the bodies of those killed in battle, celebrating together the merry festivities of Christmas. And yet the absurdity of it is what captures our fascination. The context was so ugly and stark that a pause of any kind, much less mutual participation in holiday cheer, challenges the imagination.
From a worldly perspective, the gospel account of Jesus' birth seems as absurd as the Christmas truce of 1914. A baby was born in a nondescript barn to a mother who had no political clout or worldly wealth. And yet, at His birth, the angels declared, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" How could this baby have anything to do with providing peace? About 700 years before Jesus' birth, the prophet Isaiah declared, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." How could this baby be the Prince of Peace?
The miseries of the first century are well known. Jesus' family, not long after His birth, would be forced to escape to Egypt to avoid the murderous plot of King Herod. The ministry of Jesus would lead him to Jerusalem, where he would be crucified among criminals, even though He was innocent of any crime or sin. How could this be connected to anything related to peace?
“The peace we long for is not this world’s tenuous, temporary truces. No, the peace we long for is the eternal glorious restoration of God with man. ”
The pathology of the human condition is not remedied by technology. The advancement of technology has only provided more efficient and deadly ways for man to kill and destroy. Neither is the pathology of the human condition remedied by politics. Political solutions sometimes reduce human suffering but often create their own suffering and dysfunction. Nor is the pathology of the human condition remedied by efforts of human will. The humanist looks at the truce of 1914 and sees hope. Hope, that if men could simply set aside differences and mutually strive toward peace, harmony could be achieved, and the world could live in peace. However, they ignore the reality of the following day when soldiers returned to the fight giving their full attention to killing the men they had sung carols with the day before.
The Christmas truce of 1914 was amazing, but it did not last. It could not last. The soldiers who experienced it knew it would not last. However, the peace that Jesus brings has no end. Jesus did not come to broker a cease-fire but to settle the enmity between God and man. Jesus did not come to establish a less oppressive government of men but to establish the perfect kingdom of God. This side of heaven, there will continuously be wars and rumors of war. The depravity of man and man's ingenuity in ways to hurt and harm one another will continue to grow. Yet because Jesus came, died for our sins, and rose from the dead, these will come to an end. Wars will end, suffering will cease, and brokenness will be no more in the kingdom to come. The Prince of Peace, who brings peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased, will accomplish this.
Until that day, there may be glimmers of peace. Though unlikely, there may even be another miraculous moment like the Christmas of 1914. These events are sweet and even an encouraging harbinger for better things to come. But do not be distracted from the greater hope. The peace we long for is not this world's tenuous, temporary truces. No, the peace we long for is the eternal glorious restoration of God with man. This was the good news the angels declared to the shepherds in the field the night Jesus was born, and this is the good news we celebrate each Advent season.
At the very least, the men who experienced the truce of 1914 were thankful for a respite from the horrors of war. The Christmas carols, soccer games, and gift exchanges were undoubtedly welcomed graces amid misery. Yet even as they celebrated and enjoyed a moment of peace, each army maintained their weapons and defenses, ready to return to action. Even as the soldiers enjoyed a moment of camaraderie with their adversary, their attention would soon return to killing. I wonder if during these strange festivities if one of the soldiers thought of Isaiah 2:4, where the prophet speaks of a day when nations will "beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." The fulfillment of that promise began the day Jesus was born and will be completed when He comes again.
What good news, indeed!
"And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"" (Luke 2:10–14, ESV)
