What child is this?
It is Christmas time.
What a great time of the year. Baby Jesus, the tiny little 6-pound, 11-ounce bundle of joy! The happy couple’s first baby. They are dirt poor, but they are happy – they have their love to keep them warm. The child is angelically celebrated in the skies and visited by Magi. They say he is actually God come in person to show us how much He loves us! His name is Josh – how cute is that? Who doesn’t love baby Jesus and Christmas?
Everybody loves baby Jesus! So, what went wrong?
I guess it depends on how you see this child — on how you answer the question, “What child is this?”
In 1875, William C. Dix wrote this little Christmas hymn, and in it we see several examples of the audience that witnesses this incarnational event:
*
What Child is this who, laid to rest,
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
So, bring Him incense, gold, and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
*
Who all do we see represented here?
His mom, Mary, cradling her son. That’s darling, of course!
The angels who sing "peace on earth and good will to men". That is crazy fun!
The shepherds, who have been told that on this day in the city of David has been born unto them a Savior and they rush off to find him. The drama just keeps coming!
Even the animals get a bit-part in the musical. Maybe these animals see this little baby and the young family as an interesting distraction on a cold, boring night that otherwise would be like every other night.
So far, so good. What’s not to like?
Then we see that in this “musical” there is a bit of a veiled reference to the Magi, the wise men, who bring gifts of incense, precious oils and gold. They come to see a newborn King. And that is when all hell breaks loose.
*
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
*
Now, of course everyone loves an innocent baby. A baby can’t hurt a fly. A baby has so many needs. A poor, misunderstood family, experiencing hardship and persevering to a happy ending is heartwarming. The Hallmark moment should end here. All's well that ends well! Pass out the Kleenex and head to bed!
But it doesn’t end here. It begins here.
A couple years later, the Wise Men tell King Herod that they have seen a star rising in the west and they know it to be the sign of a great King being born. They deliver their gifts to the young family. Warned by an angel, they don’t go back and tell Herod where the baby is as they had promised him. Rather, they just sneak back home to the east. That same angel then tells Joseph and Mary in a dream to run and don’t look back. Off they head as refugees to Egypt. And then we read that Herod sends troops to kill every child in Bethlehem three years old and younger.
It is the part about being a king that is so unsettling!
Kings threaten the establishment. Baby kings grow up and cause revolutions. They demand and disrupt. They inspire insurrections and refuse to conform. They will grow to demand that we leave our old allegiances and pledge fidelity to His rule and His reign and His purposes and plans. That means…wait…I don’t have ultimate control of my life anymore. This King is officially meddling.
So, they kill the all-grown-up “Newborn King.” And the world has been trying to kill him ever sense.
He just won’t stay dead!
Merry Christmas! Together with all the heavens we now sing a new song: (Revelations 5:12-14)
*
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."
And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever"
And the four beasts said, "Amen". And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.
*
Peace to you from 100 Fold Ministries. We hope that your advent season is indeed merry and bright in Christ!
