12-19-22<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do we realize that the birth pangs of the first Christmas were not Mary\u2019s alone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bible tells us that all the aspects of Christ\u2019s Birth were not unalloyed joy. The birth pangs of Mary were prophesied in Scripture, even from the Garden, and birth pangs are frequent Biblical metaphors for the distress believers will endure, even persecution unto the End Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Specifically at Christmastide the reference is not solely to one mother\u2019s labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was the grief of Judean mothers. It is ironic, especially in our secular time when the Divinity of Jesus is questioned \u2013 even in the pulpits of \u201cliberal\u201d churches \u2013 yet the pagan Roman ruler Herod acknowledged the mysterious, incarnate Savior to the extent that he ordered the slaughter of little boys under the age of two when he was told of prophecies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is no surprise when we remember that the devil himself acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, Son of the Living God. Herod was an amateur when we consider other enemies of Christianity; and the devil ultimately will be defeated (was defeated at the Resurrection). Yet birth pangs, too often, enflame the faithful, from tearful mothers of those baby boys, to mighty saints and martyrs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please, at least for a moment, put aside the Hallmark cards and boughs of holly. It is important to remember that <\/em>He came\u2026 why<\/em> He came\u2026 and how<\/em> He came. In fact, Jesus was born amid tears; He dealt with tears; and He died on the cross \u2013 which was His mission \u2013 amid tears. Even 700 years before His Birth, Jesus was identified as a Man of Sorrows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He shall grow up\u2026 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. 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.<\/em> Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned each of us to our own ways; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and he opened not his mouth\u2026<\/em>(Isaiah 53)<\/p>\n\n\n\n What has come to be called the Massacre or the Slaughter of Innocents today, as a historical fact, is described in Matthew 2:16-18. It has become a symbol, too \u2013 a twisted, evil inspiration to uncountable people around the world who slaughter innocents today. The abortion nightmare is not waged to thwart a Savior, but to save peoples\u2019 comfort and convenience. I am in no way callous to the angst of these mothers when they make tortured decisions; believe me, I am specially tender, but we must always opt for life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some believe \u2013 or want to believe \u2013 that America marches lock-step with the contemporary world on this \u201cissue.\u201d But the US, with Communist China and North Korea, is virtually alone among nations in allowing the cruelest of procedures, and late-term deaths. Merry Christmas, by the way, to all survivors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most beautiful-sounding Christmas tunes is the lullaby we know as the Coventry Carol<\/em>. Mother sings to child, \u201cBye, bye, lully lu-lay,\u201d a transliteration of Old French. It is sweet, certainly; but many have forgotten that the mother in this lullaby is whispering good-bye to her son, about to be slaughtered. It is so named because this song, in Old English first called \u201cThow Littel Tyne Childe,\u201d had its origins in a \u201cMystery Play\u201d of Norman France and performed at the Coventry Cathedral in England. The play was called \u201cThe Mystery of the Shearmen and the Tailors,\u201d based on the second chapter of Matthew. The earliest transcription extant is from 1534; the oldest example of its musical setting is from 1591.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How can it be that the grieving, almost insensate, lullabies of mothers, their dead babies in their laps or facing imminent slaughter, can reflect a matter of foundational faith? That is a question I cannot answer, either as a man or as a reflective Christian. Yet the Coventry Carol<\/em> tells the story of this awful occurrence in a way that is achingly haunting and beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many people \u2013 many mothers \u2013 superficially think the ancient carol with its Old French roots of English, \u201cBye, bye, lully, lullay\u2026\u201d is merely a bedtime song. Yet the lullaby (which word derives from the lament) is a reminder of the hideous opposition the world harbors against the Gospel; and it commemorates the price, sometimes, of being a Christian. For all its beauty, it is the lamentation of an innocent mother cradling her innocent slaughtered child in her lap: a horrible reflection of birth pangs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its plaintive melody is one of the great flowerings of polyphony over plainsong in Western music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny child, O sisters too, how may we do,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
Lullay, thou little tiny child,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we do sing
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n