For 28 years on this day, a name has been known to the world for the tragic events that happened. This is the day in 1996 when the body of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado home, strangled and sexually assaulted.
The parents, John and Patsy, along with nine-year-old brother, Burke, and JonBenét had returned from a friend’s home on Christmas evening. JonBenét was tucked into bed and everything seemed like a normal evening in the Ramsey home.
Until it wasn’t.
The next morning, JonBenét was found missing. The parents called the police. Patsy found a ransom note. “The note was written on paper taken from Patsy Ramsey’s notepad. It demanded a peculiar amount of money – $118,000 – the same amount John Ramsey received for his Christmas bonus as president of Access Graphics.”1
As the police came and went through the house, looking for clues, John and a friend went into the basement. Upon opening the cellar door, John spotted the body of his daughter.
JonBenét was the community’s sweetheart. She had participated in beauty pageants and had received many titles. “Little Miss Colorado. Little Miss Charlevoix. Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl. America’s Royale Miss. National Tiny Miss Beauty…A week before her death, JonBenét was featured in a Boulder Christmas parade – with her name displayed along the side of her float.”2 The community, as well as the nation, was profoundly affected by this barbaric act.
“Police at first focused their investigation on the pageant queen’s parents, but found insufficient evidence and fully cleared them in 2008. Police also theorized an intruder broke into the family home and committed the killing. In 2003, forensic investigators used a blood sample to create a DNA profile. The DNA did not match samples drawn from her parents or others close to her family. The DNA was submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which contains more than 1.6 million DNA profiles, but no matches were found. In 2006, John Mark Karr confessed in an email to killing JonBenét, but investigators found no evidence linking him to the crime and never charged him. The same year, Patsy died from ovarian cancer at 49. In 2016, new forensic analysts found that the sample contained genetic markers from two people.”3
Every December, police try to give an update on this cold case. This year, updates were
being given in November because of the Netflix documentary on the case. It was called Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey. To this day, it’s still a mystery.
I would imagine Christmas was ruined for the Ramsey family. How could you celebrate Christmas, knowing that the next day would be the anniversary of when your child had suffered a gruesome death?
Mark Lowry speculated this very thought for Mary concerning Jesus. How could she celebrate the birth of her son, Jesus, knowing that He was going to suffer a gruesome death?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Would one day walk on water?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy
Has come to make you new?
This child that you delivered, will soon deliver you.
To answer the questions, “Yes, Mark, Mary did know. Maybe she didn’t know all of it but she knew what was important.”
Mary knew who this baby was because she would have known Isaiah 9:6-7. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (7) Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” This is something Israel was anticipating.
Mary knew that this baby would one day suffer and excruciating death. Isaiah 53:1-6 told her all about it. “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? (2) For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. (3) He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (4) Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (5) But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (6) 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.”
Mary knew this baby she was holding was going to be the deliverer that had been promised. She knew this was her Savior. And she knew what it was going to take for Him to be that Savior. He was going to have to die. Hallelujah, though, He is going to rise from that grave alive – and He did!
While the Ramsey Christmases were probably never the same, this wasn’t true for Mary. Yes, we just celebrated Christmas and crucifixion day is on the horizon. But so is Resurrection Sunday. Christmas is not ruined by Calvary. It is complimented.
“And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, (47) And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” (Luke 1:46-47)
1https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/27/us/jonbenet-ramsey-killing-netflix-documentary/index.html
2Ibid.
3https://www.newsweek.com/jonbenet-ramsey-case-update-boulder-police-reject-critics-dna-claims-1992781
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