What Child Is This

During this Advent season I have been preaching from four traditional hymns that anticipate and celebrate the incarnation. This is the fourth of four blog entries about these songs.

The tune to this hymn, GREENSLEEVES, is very old -- probably composed when the first Queen Elizabeth reigned in England. Shakespeare mentions it in Merry Wives of Windsor, and the song has appeared in books of carols since 1642.

People had already been setting Christmas-related words to this tune for hundreds of years before William Dix penned What Child Is This in 1865. The tune has undergone a few modifications to make it easier for modern singers -- such as changing the mode from Dorian to minor. 

The focus of the three stanzas is the adoration of the shepherds on the night of Jesus' birth (from Luke 2:6-20). But the reference to "incense, gold, and myrrh" also draws in the visit of the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12). These two scenes are told in separate gospels, and they probably happened at two different times. Even so, most nativity scenes show the shepherds and the wise men together. Even if this isn't accurate historically, there is a good theological reason for putting these two groups of guests together: they both represent King David -- the shepherd who became a king.

Indeed, David looms large over the nativity. The gospel reading for week 4 of Advent this year is the annunciation to Mary in Luke 1:26-38. David's name is mentioned twice in that short section of scripture: Joseph is a descendant of the ancient king, and Jesus will take up his ancestor's throne. So bringing these two parts of David's legacy together -- his humble roots, and his royalty -- is a very appropriate move. What Child Is This reminds us that God will magnify this poor child, born in a stable. Who is he? The son of David, and of Mary. Our Messiah is the descendant of an impulsive king who founded an empire, and he is the child of a humble peasant woman who yielded to God's difficult assignment for her life.