What Child Is This?

 

During the Christmas season we often have to remember what the real reason for the season is. That is good and as it should be. However, as we do this, we often just stop with the miracle of Jesus being born in the manger.

It’s difficult for our mortal brains to come to grips with the tremendous and total impact of Jesus’s role in God’s Plan of Salvation. All of it had to happen in order for the plan to work. Without it, we would have no hope and would rely on ourselves to save us from this fallen world – which, of course, would fail every time.

The plan was for Jesus to have a lowly birth.

Then He had a sacrificial death on the cross where He died for all the sins of mankind. Without this sacrifice, we could never truly follow Him. Jesus is our bridge to eternity in Heaven.

After the cross, there had to be the Resurrection or else our faith is in vain.

There are only a few Christmas songs/carols which begin touch on the totality of this plan. The one that I love is “What Child is This?”. It’s a carol written in the 1860s by William Dix and set to the tune of “Greensleeves” which is a traditional English folk song.

There have been many renditions of the carol. I especially enjoy the one done for a special showing of the show “The Chosen” in2022.

The verse about the cross is most poignant.

“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.”

And to think this was all prophesied in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 7:14

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive

 and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 

Isaiah goes on to say:

Isaiah 9:6

⁶ 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. 

As we know, Christ’s First Coming was not to be the triumph so many of wanted it to be. The disciples of Jesus, and all of Israel, wanted a conquering king to free them from Roman oppression. If they had just heeded what Isaiah wrote.

Isaiah 53:1-6

Who has believed what he has heard from us?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by men,
    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

What about the resurrection of Jesus? There are many parts of Scripture which talk about the Resurrection but the most direct is –

Psalm 16:10

¹⁰ For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
    or let your holy one see corruption. 

Of course, the Resurrection of Jesus is not the end. Like a good Jewish husband, Jesus will come back for His bride (believers) and bring us to the rooms He has prepared. This is the Second Coming.

John 14:1-3

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ² In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 

But wait, there’s more! After some time, Revelation says 1000 years, the New Jerusalem will descend and there will be a new earth reminiscent of the original Garden of Eden where there will be no more thorns (Gen 3:18), sickness, wars or death. This is, in a sense, the Third Coming of Jesus which fits the pattern of threes we see throughout scripture.

This is where we realize the fulfillment of the entire prophecy of Isaiah when he talks about a son being born:

Isaiah 9:2-7

² The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
    on them has light shone.
³ You have multiplied the nation;
    you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
    as with joy at the harvest,
    as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
⁴ For the yoke of his burden,
    and the staff for his shoulder,
    the rod of his oppressor,
    you have broken as on the day of Midian.
⁵ For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
    and every garment rolled in blood
    will be burned as fuel for the fire.
⁶ 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.
⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

The zeal is God’s desire for His most prized creation – you, me and all of humanity who believe – to be with Him forever!

This is the love of God – that He would not spare His Son to make a way for us to be with Him. One of the reasons we give gifts to others is it is our meager way of showing our appreciation for all that He has done, and will do, for us.

Earlier I mentioned there were only a few Christmas songs or carols which touch on the total Plan of Salvation, another is “Joy to the World.” Some of you may have realized the song really isn’t about Christmas itself but about the final return of Jesus and the New Jerusalem. However, it is fitting to have this song sung during this season as we must remember that Christmas is not the end, just the beginning. Our true and everlasting joy will be upon His ultimate return.