The Tenth Before Christmas

 

It's Christmas tide and I just said yesterday that we ought not to consider the incarnation simply as an onerous task that must be completed for redemption. 

However, now I wish to look back at the other end of the stick. 

Yes, it was a joyful occasion, but also one fraught with difficulty. 

Mary nearly lost her fiance due to a rather understandable misconception that she was unchaste. Joseph spent nine months married to a woman whom he did not touch as a husband would a wife, looking forward to a child who would never truly be his own. Two years later, magi appeared to honor the child, and then the whole family had to pack up and flee to Egypt in the night because Herod felt threatened by this new king born in Bethlehem. And we all know that death still occurred while they were gone. The children in Bethlehem, slaughtered without mercy, "A voice was heard in Rahmah, the sound of weeping and lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted because they were no more."

Indeed, it could not have been easy for either Mary or Joseph during the events of the nativity. And this trouble was only a taste of the greater troubles their son would endure especially during his last three years on earth. The final insult would culminate in a shameful death, and the only crown this king would wear would be one of thorns.

This leads me to our song today. I have to be careful when choosing songs written in the Medieval era because so many of them worship Mary, or Joseph, rather than Christ, or they make up fanciful things about Christ's childhood that appear to me to be rather unhelpful and silly. However, one thing I love about many medieval songs is their ingenuity. They were works of art in their own right, and while many err on the side of taking too many liberties, others, like the one I'll share today, manage to employ some very beautiful symbolism to communicate the truths of the incarnation.

In "Maria Durch Ein Dornwald Ging," the setting is that of Mary going to visit her cousin Elizabeth to tell her of the child that would be born of her. As Mary walks through a thornwood which is completely leafless, the presence of the Christ child within her causes the thorns to bloom with roses. The song goes on to present the three simple facts in the final three verses: Who would baptize the child? John the Baptist. What would the child be called? The Christ. Who alone would save the world? The Christ child. 

Each verse closes with the simple refrain "Jesus und Maria"(Jesus and Mary) reminding us that right now we are still watching Mary pass through that thornwood. 

Only just with child, only just aware of her life's calling, only just beginning to realize the burden she will carry, and the joy she will experience. And yet, God is with her even now. He will be with her even up to the day when she will see her son on the cross, and He will look down at the apostle John and inform him that it is now his job to take care of her. 

        

 Since the lyrics are in German(with a Greek chorus: Kyrie eleison) I'll post them here with the English translation in italics beneath each line.