Now that we’ve celebrated Thanksgiving, the Christmas season is upon us. For many folks, music is the single most enjoyable part of the holiday. Indeed, my wife is so eager to start playing Christmas tunes that she commences not long after the calendar has turned to November. While that time frame may be excessive, I certainly have a deep appreciation for Christmas music.
Of course, there is a wide array of holiday selections. Some are merely secular, yet fun and catchy like Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree. The most well-known version of this melody was sung by Brenda Lee and memorably included in the soundtrack of the movie Home Alone. Who can help but laugh when Macauley Culkin fools the crooks into believing that his home is hosting a lively Christmas party, assisted by a model train transporting a life size figure of Michael Jordan?
Likewise, virtually everyone can recognize the dulcet tones of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, recorded in 1942. Crosby’s version of this tune has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, more than any other single.
More importantly, the birth of the Christ has inspired a rich trove of sacred compositions. The Christmas hymn O Come All Ye Faithful has been cherished for centuries. The origins of this song are uncertain, but credit is usually given to John Francis Wade, a Catholic Englishman who produced the oldest known manuscript in 1751. The original four verses were written in Latin. Decades later a Catholic priest translated the lyrics into the English version we know today. Even so, many in the modern English-speaking world still recognize the beautiful and beloved refrain: Venite Adoremus Dominum. (O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord)
Among the plethora of magnificent Christmas music, Handel’s Messiah has achieved a status all its own. Ironically, Handel’s masterpiece was originally performed at Easter, making its debut on April 13, 1742, in Dublin, Ireland. George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was a musical prodigy, born into a pious family in Halle, Germany. Handel moved to London in 1710, where he spent the rest of his life. Messiah is technically an oratorio: that is, a large-scale musical work designed for orchestra, choir, and vocal soloists. Unlike an opera, an oratorio lacks scenes, costumes and action.
Many people have recognized the providential hand of God in the creation of Messiah. Finding inspiration as few other composers have ever known, Handel completed Messiah in a span of 24 days – an astonishing burst of activity perhaps unsurpassed in the history of music. Handel apparently worked furiously from early morning until late at night. The text for Messiah was the product of librettist Charles Jennens, who selected passages from the King James Bible. While the entire Messiah is exceptional, the Hallelujah chorus deserves special mention as one of the most spectacular and inspiring pieces of all time.
Many churchgoers will savor the familiar strains of Christmas carols during this Advent season. Christmas music is a powerful force which shapes our understanding of what transpired in Bethlehem over two millennia ago. However, it must be said that carols can be misleading. Consider how Away in a Manger describes the scene of Jesus birth: “The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.” Most Christians readily recognize the nonsense of claiming that the baby Jesus didn’t cry. The Bible affirms that Jesus fully shared in our humanity. We can thus be quite certain that the baby Jesus did in fact cry whenever he was hungry, tired or had messed his britches.
Now it’s perfectly understandable that the song writer sought to portray an idealized setting out of reverence for the birth of our holy savior. Yet much is lost when we stray from hard realities laid out for us in the scriptures. The context of Jesus’ birth was anything but sentimental or soothing. To begin with, Mary’s pre-marital pregnancy would have been potentially disgraceful and scandalous. Mary and Joseph were then forced to make an arduous 90-mile journey on foot from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea in order to register for the Roman census. The book of Luke tells us that this census came at the behest of the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus.
These historical facts should remind us that the land of Israel was hardly a place of peace, prosperity, or freedom. The Roman general Pompey the Great had conquered Jerusalem in 63 B.C., making Judea a client kingdom of Rome. This arrangement eventually brought Herod the Great to power in 37 B.C. The Jews suffered severe oppression under the Roman yolk. They were forced to pay heavy tribute to their overlords, causing many Jews to fall deep into debt. The gospel accounts frequently allude to the bitter animosity that the Jewish people felt towards their Roman occupiers.
Jesus was born between 6 and 4 B.C. This latter date was the year of Herod the Great’s death. The king’s demise produced a power vacuum which soon led to turmoil and tragedy. A man named Judah ben Hezekiah led an insurgency based in the Galilean city of Sepphoris. Apparently, the Roman garrison was attacked, prompting a vicious response from the governor Varus. Roman troops attacked Sepphoris and burned the city to the ground. 2000 Jewish rebels were crucified, and the rest of the town was sold into slavery. Needless to say, this would have been a traumatic event for the region. Fascinatingly, Sepphoris is located less than 5 miles from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth. We can be virtually certain that Joseph and Mary knew many of those involved. It’s also highly likely that Jesus as a boy would have known about these gruesome events.
It would not be long before Galilee would again be rocked by violent conflict. In 6 A.D., when Jesus was about 10 years old, a man named Judas led another Galilean uprising in response to a Roman census. A census was always bitterly resented because it determined the amount of taxes which would be levied against the Jews. Although we don’t know the details, it seems that Judas also came to a bad end. In the book of Acts, we learn that Judas was killed and his followers dispersed.
This season, many Christians will sing O Little Town of Bethlehem. This lovely song portrays Bethlehem lying in tranquil stillness, enjoying a “deep and dreamless sleep.” Similarly, Silent Night, Holy Night declares that all was calm and bright. Yet our brief historical survey should alert us that Israel was a tinderbox of hatred and enmity which could explode into rebellion at any time. A generation after Jesus, these tensions would culminate in the outbreak of the large-scale Jewish War of 66 A.D. The Romans crushed this revolt with their characteristic efficiency and brutality, destroying most of the city of Jerusalem and razing the Temple in 70 A.D. The historian Josephus tells us that during the final siege of Jerusalem, the Romans crucified so many Jews that they ran out of wood.
Jesus was born during the final years of Herod’s reign when the king was plagued by ill health and obsessed with fears of betrayal. Herod’s distrust had previously led him to execute three of his sons as well as his favorite wife, Mariamne. Some have labelled Herod as paranoid, but this is somewhat unfair. Herod’s suspicions were hardly irrational. If you were a king in the ancient world, chances were that those around you – even your own family members – were, if not actively plotting your downfall, at least willing to dispatch you if given the opportunity. Given this climate, we can at least comprehend how Herod became a violent man who would brook no rival.
The book of Matthew describes how the wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem seeking “the one who had been born king of the Jews.” Unsurprisingly, Herod – the current king of the Jews – was alarmed by this development. When he learned that the new king was to be born in the little village of Bethlehem, Herod gave orders to slaughter all the boys there under 2 years of age. Scholars estimate that Bethlehem had a population of approximately 1000, suggesting that around two dozen baby boys perished. This deplorable act was wholly consistent with Herod’s previous brutality. The baby Jesus only escaped when an angel of the Lord warned Joseph of Herod’s impending wrath, allowing the holy family to flee to Egypt.
At the end of the day, we should recognize that the Christmas story is rife with bitterness, oppression, injustice, anxiety, terror, bloodshed, and grief. This reality is not often reflected in the pious songs we sing around Christmastime. But we shouldn’t attempt to sterilize the brokenness and depravity of the world into which the baby Jesus was born. This is the dark background against which we can best see the light. Only when we fully understand the depths of the world’s wickedness can we truly rejoice and celebrate the birth of the newborn king, the savior who brings “peace to men on earth.” Of his kingdom there shall be no end.
