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Last year around this time my son, who apparently is quite thoughtful between video games, asked me about a song the kids sang at his sister’s preschool Christmas pageant. “We will tell the world that the Lord is come,” the song goes, and I told him yes, I remember, that’s “Mary Had a Baby.”
“It’s kind of an ironic song, isn’t it?” he asked me.
“Really?” I replied. Irony isn’t a quality I usually look for in a Christmas carol, but perhaps something slipped past me.
“Well,” he explained, “They told everyone that Jesus was born. And then once everyone knew, they killed him.” They shouldn’t have told anyone, was his point, and I think he may be on to something.
If your divine savior is going to take human form, and become mortal, then alerting people to his advent is probably the last thing you want to do. Instead of telling it on the mountain, aren’t you better off keeping the whole thing under wraps? You know—pay off the wise men, put the shepherds into the Witness Protection Program, and send out a press release telling people, “Calm down, that star everyone noticed the other night was actually a weather balloon.”
It’s true that this approach would have resulted in really different Christmas carols than we have now, with more of a nothing-to-see-here-move-along kind of vibe. But just think how much more thrilling the story of Jesus’ life would be if his real identity had been kept a secret. I’m not saying he couldn’t act like the Son of God. He could still do miracles. But he’d wear a mask. Like Batman. Or a Mexican wrestler.
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