What child is this........

"In 1865 Englishman William Chatterton Dix wrote The Manger Throne, three verses of which became What Child Is This? In the era while Dix was writing hymns and raising a family, Christmas was not the celebration it is today. Neither was it a season where many openly celebrated the birth of Christ. Conservative Christian churches forbade gift-giving, decorating, or even acknowledging the day. These Puritan groups feared that if set aside as a special day, Christmas would become a day of pagan rituals more than a very serious time of worship. In this context, it was unusual for Dix to feel moved to write about Christ's birth, since many hymn writers of the period ignored Christmas altogether." When we look at how Christmas is celebrated today, perhaps the Puritans had a point.  At the age of twenty-nine, William Dix was struck with a sudden and near fatal illness and was confined to bed rest for the next several months and he slipped into a deep depression.  During this time, he wrote many hymns, including What Child is This which was later set to the traditional tune of Greensleeves.
Lets go through the words to his song, little by little, and see if we can experience some of what he might have been thinking about, praying about, and pondering on.

What child is this who laid to rest
On Mary's lap is sleeping?

What child indeed.  Maybe it's just me, but I have often wondered when the Angel of the Lord spoke to Mary, exactly how much did he tell her, could she have been told more than what is recorded in Luke's gospel account, could she have known the whole story from beginning to end? Probably not, but I bet she knew enough.  Picture in your mind, holding your newborn child on your lap and thinking about their future as many a parent has done.  Now, imagine that the Angel of the Lord has told you that this is God's child........ no pressure.......  Can you imagine holding that responsibility in your arms ??  Can you imagine pondering that future.  This much I assume, with whatever knowledge the Angel imparted, God must have sent a full dose of strength and peace to go along with it.


Whom angels greet with anthems sweet
While shepherds watch are keeping.
This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing

It is easy for us to look at this families situation and wonder if , at least for a moment, if they didn't feel like they were all along. This verse reminds us, however, that the baby Jesus was never alone. Even at this early day, not only did he have his earthly mother taking care of his physical needs, the angels were singing sweet whispers to his spirit to comfort him and others were coming to help watch over and protect him.  They were coming because they knew the King had arrived.  Christ had come, he had come as a child. 


Haste, haste to bring him laud
The babe, the son of Mary

Hurry up shepherds !!  Hurry up, you don't want to be late in bringing praises to your redeemer, your rescuer, your saviour, you don't want to be late to praise God's son, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Lion of Judah has come as an innocent lamb to save you.... hurry shepherds, hurry everyone.  Christ the King has come.


Why lies he in such mean estate
Where ox and ass are feeding?

Why indeed !!  Why would God send his son to such a humble and poor existence?  Why would he send Jesus, not only as an infant, but have him start off life in a barn, with his crib being a food trough for animals?  It doesn't get much more meager and humble a starting point than this.  Why send him as a child at all?  God could have sent a full grown man, he had made a man before after all, certainly He could have done it again.  Why not send the King of Kings to earth as a powerful and mighty King, all grown up and ready to wage war on darkness?  I think the answer is in the scripture when Jesus said, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— ²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” ¹⁶ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20)


Good Christian fear, for sinners here
The silent word is pleading
Nails, spear shall pierce him through
The cross be borne for me, for you

These chilling words for tell the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus has come and while he is yet still silent he is yearning to speak his Fathers words.  He knows he has come with a purpose, to serve, to save, to ransom, to rescue, to redeem.  He knows what lies ahead of him. He knows because John 1:1 tells us ,"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. and Isaiah (53:7)"He was oppressed and afflicted,    yet he did not open his mouth;he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,   and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth."  He could have called down fire from heaven or a league of angels to come to his rescue, but yet, he remained silent, he bore the cross for us, for me, for you.

 

Hail, hail the Word made flesh
The babe, the son of Mary

As he grows and begins his ministry, we are reminded, he is God's word, he is both God and man.  He is worthy of our praise even though we are not worthy of him.  He serves us, yet we are not worthy of being served.  He saves us, yet we are not worthy of being saved.  This line tells us this, he is God's son,  and thus God, yet he is the son of Mary, so he is man  as well.



Then bring him incense, gold and myrrh
Come peasant, king to own him
The King of kings salvation brings
Let loving hearts enthrone him

Here we are reminded to bring him gifts and incense, gold and myrrh are listed.  We also have been told in scripture that the gift that is truly desired is the gift of ourselves, our whole self, ourselves as a living sacrifice to him that has redeemed us.  It doesn't matter if you are a peasant, a pauper, a blue collar worker, a ceo, a King, a homeless person, a farmer, or a sports figure, Jesus has come for each of us and desires each of us to give ourselves up to him who has given everything to save us.  The throne that we can provide for our King is place firmly in our heart..... let us invite him in to take a seat on this throne.

Raise, raise the song on high
The virgin sings her lullaby
Joy, joy, for Christ is born
The babe, the son of Mary

All I can think of when I read these last few lines is Mary singing to her son.  Singing with joy, singing with praise, singing with tears, singing with strength, singing in weakness, singing in hope.  All I can think of is what must have it been like to hold something so small knowing he was so big, coddling something so frail knowing he was so incredibly strong.  Caring for something so much yet know he would care for her more.  Loving someone so deeply and yet he really did and would prove he loved her even more.  That he loved us, and loves us more that we can even understand.  What must have it been like


....... what child is this, what child indeed !!

Lets sing the song together now..........

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.
This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste to bring him laud
The babe, the son of Mary

Why lies he in such mean estate
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian fear, for sinners here
The silent word is pleading
Nails, spear shall pierce him through
The cross be borne for me, for you
Hail, hail the Word made flesh
The babe, the son of Mary

Then bring him incense, gold and myrrh
Come peasant, king to own him
The King of kings salvation brings
Let loving hearts enthrone him
Raise, raise the song on high
The virgin sings her lullaby
Joy, joy, for Christ is born
The babe, the son of Mary

ever listen to the words??

There are some songs that we just sing because we know the words.  But there comes a time when we have been singing them for so long, we know what word comes next but we really stopped listening to the words we are singing.  We sing from habit instead of appreciation of the words themselves and their meaning.  The message has been lost over time, if we ever got a message from the song in the first place.  One such song is Joy to the World........  have you ever thought about the meaning of the words?? 

JOY !!! 

Lets just look at the first two lines. 

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;


What does this say to you?  What if we translate it out of sing songy verse and into a mode similar to what we would use if we were speaking.  If we did that, it might look like this.

Hey, today is a great, awesome, happy, rockin day.  It's the absolute best day ever because the one we have been waiting for , waiting for for like ever, has come today, the guy who makes it all better, solves all the problems and leads us to eternal happiness, the king of forever and everything  was born today. The world received a way out, a way up, he was born today!!

Next line

Let every heart prepare Him room,

What does this say to you?

This is more of an instruction the way I hear it.  Here the song is telling us to get on the wagon, have some faith, make room for some big time grace, open your heart and let Jesus in, open your heart and let Jesus lead, open your heart and give the man...... THE man all the room he needs.

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Moving on......

Heaven and nature sing......  Heaven would be who exactly, and who is nature that it would sing ??  Well, what I hear the author saying here is that this day is SO glorious that the Angels in heaven are happy enough to sing out and nature, why nature is the all the things on earth that God made, the clouds, the rivers, the trees, the stones, everything of the earth feels that a big thing, a huge thing, a glorious joyous marvelous thing is happening today.


moving a little further along.....

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!

Let men their songs employ;

Again, JOY......  the world should be happy, all the people, all the creations, everything in the world should be mad with joy because the promise has begun to be fulfilled.  The Savior has come, he has arrived, Jesus is in the house !!  Let all mankind sing out and relish the coming of enough grace to get them into God's very presents. 

moving a bit further along......

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy

Even the fields and floods, even the rocks know Jesus was born today......  Joy has come, it has come to be with us , wretched tho we are, Joy has come, Grace has come, the promise is here with us today...... 

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found,

Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

Why has he come ?  Why are we supposed to be so happy ?  That is what this stanza tells us about.  He came to destroy the power of sin, sin can no longer enslave us as we have been given the power of His grace thru faith.  We could never save ourselves, the law made that all too clear, but now grace has come to save us and we have been brought freedom, freedom brings us joy !! The thorns have been struck down, the curse has been removed, he comes to make his blessings flow, all his blessings.

He rules the world with truth and grace,

He has come to rule over us with truth and grace, he has come to free us from the plague, the immutable stain of our sin is what he and only he can lift away.........

And makes the nations prove
we prove it by our faith first and in his grace we prove it by following him, by loving him, and by living in his will thru his enabling grace


The glories of His righteousness,

the glories are proved out by our salvation, his gift , his grace, unearned, undeserved, but heaped on us non the less...... why oh why will he bless us so........ you need only read , or sing, a little farther now......


And wonders of His love,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders, wonders, of His love.


His LOVE..... his love defies understanding...... it defines who he is...... God is love........  he loves us....  he loved us before we were even created, and he loved us while we were yet sinners... a love that we cannot even begin to grasp........  a love that brought us grace....... grace is a concept we cannot fully wrap our heads around ...... 


now......... now we can think about the words, the message in the song...... we can sing it anew from our hearts... let us sing now......



Joy to the World , the Lord is come!


Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.



Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!

Let men their songs employ;

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.



No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found,

Far as the curse is found,

Far as, far as, the curse is found.



He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders, wonders, of His love.