The First Christmas Cantata

The First Christmas Cantata
John R. Petrilli

In 1818 an Austrian pastor found himself reflecting on the real meaning of the Christmas story as he walked home from a nativity play. As he stepped through the new-fallen snow, his path led him to a small hill overlooking the little village of Oberndorf below. Struck by the beauty of the scene and the majestic silence of the wintry night, a poem began to form in his mind. Arriving home, Pastor Josef Mohr quickly penned the words that would inscribe his poem into history. Wanting to use his verses in a song at the church’s upcoming Christmas service, he rushed the poem over to the church organist, who ingeniously composed the music that same day.

Since the church organ was in disrepair, the congregation sang the tune with guitar accompaniment, and the song “Silent Night” was introduced to the world. A few weeks later when church organist Franz Gruber played Silent Night to test the newly repaired instrument, the organ repairman was deeply touched by the music he heard. The repairman took the song back to his own Alpine village where the gifted Strasser Sisters picked it up and began singing it throughout the countryside. The Strasser Quartet created a sensation, and the carol became a European favorite. Silent night remains as fresh and beautiful today as it was to the Austrians who first heard it 170 years ago.

Year after year we lovingly sing this simple tribute to our Savior, Jesus Christ. Have you ever considered what Christmas would be like without the many wonderful carols we sing? Music is an integral part of the very fabric of every human celebration. The birth of the Savior was no different as beautiful music filled the mouths of men and angels alike. The nativity of Jesus Christ was the occasion for a musical celebration that has carried down through the centuries and continues today. The Gospel of Luke contains no less than five musical scores that heralded God’s entrance into human history.

ELIZABETH’S SONG OF CELEBRATION IS THE INITIAL MOVEMENT OF THE FIRST CHRISTMAS CANTATA. Luke 1:42-45

As I prepared this article I was surprised to find that all five of these passages have been recognized as songs by the church for centuries. Our first song was sung in the hill country of Judea by Mary’s cousin Elizabeth. An unwed, teen pregnancy prompted Mary to temporarily leave her hometown and arrange a 3 month stay with Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah. No sooner had she appeared at the door but Elizabeth’s womb felt a strong kick as the pre-natal John the Baptist registered his excitement over his Messiah’s visit. Filled with the Spirit, Elizabeth loudly exclaimed her joy over the privilege she had of being chosen for a visit from the mother of her Messiah. She then declared the uniquely favored status God had bestowed upon Mary by selecting her to bear Israel’s long-awaited Messiah. She closes her Christmas carol with a blessing upon Mary for trusting God to do through her what He said He would do.

MARY’S SONG OF EXALTATION IS THE SECOND MOVEMENT OF THE FIRST CHRISTMAS CANTATA. Luke 1:46-55

Two cousins who loved each other came face to face, each unexpectedly pregnant. Hearing Elizabeth’s words of acclamation, Mary bursts forth with a song of her own. Like the lyrics of every great Christmas carol, Mary’s song highly exalts the Lord. She praises God for her privileged status as Savior-bearer, an honor that would be remembered by all succeeding generations. Mary wisely attributes these things to the mercy of God, and sees that mercy also extending to anyone and everyone who will trust in God as she’d done. Could this be the Christmas when you become one of the people in Mary’s song by trusting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? According to Mary, when God moves onto the human scene, He has a habit of turning things right side up! Unbelievers who lived their lives in vanity are suddenly upended, while humble believers are surprisingly elevated to a place of preferred status. The godly poor who only knew hunger and destitution receive abundant provision from God, while godless wealthy individuals lose it all and go away empty-handed. Mary closes her beautiful song by expressing her wonder and appreciation to God for remembering and fulfilling His covenant promises to send Israel a Savior. One of the marks of a Spirit-filled life is to speak in spiritual songs, and Mary and Elizabeth’s songs demonstrate that they possessed just such a filling.

ZECHARIAH’S SONG OF HOPE IS THE THIRD MOVEMENT OF THE FIRST CHRISTMAS CANTATA. Luke 1:67-79

So far we’ve enjoyed the Christmas carols of a Hebrew housewife and an engaged teenager. Now we are treated to a number composed by a Jewish priest. At this point in the story, John the Baptist has been born and the entire neighborhood was buzzing with excitement and anticipation. They saw a tongue-tied Zechariah suddenly burst forth in speech as he wrote down the name of his newborn son. As a Hebrew priest, Zechariah was certainly well-acquainted with the many Messianic prophecies in Scripture. It comes as no surprise that Zechariah’s song majors on the fulfillment of the prophetic Messianic promises to Israel. But as the proud father of just-born John the Baptist, he’s chosen by God to provide stunning details of what each child’s future ministry would look like.

With regard to his own son, John would serve as the Forerunner to Jesus. In ancient times a forerunner or herald would run ahead of the king’s caravan to announce his soon arrival at the city gates. John’s job was to prepare the hearts and minds of the people of Israel for the coming of their Messiah, not only to their homeland, but more importantly, to their hearts. His baptism of repentance would spiritually condition the people to receive complete forgiveness, cleansing, and salvation through Jesus the Messiah. In addition to personal liberation from sin’s darkness and death, the ministries of John and Jesus would crack open the door to national emancipation from the persecution of anti-Semitic foreign powers. Take this to the bank, Jew-haters like Iran’s current President will ultimately be overthrown when the Prince of Peace takes over the kingdoms of this world. Simeon’s song beautifully depicts Jesus as a Rising Sun that scatters the darkness of spiritual night, and ushers-in the dawn of a brand new day of where global peace replaces international conflict, knowledge erases ignorance, and righteousness forever dethrones wickedness. Once again, Zechariah’s song points to the imminent arrival of a soul-saving, nation-restoring, race-rescuing Savior!

THE ANGELIC SONG OF GOOD NEWS IS THE FOURTH MOVEMENT OF THE FIRST CHRISTMAS CANTATA. Luke 2:18-14

If the Christmas carols before Jesus’ birth were Christ-centered, then the songs after His birth are all the more so. Once the Savior had been born, all heaven and earth broke forth into singing. While this account is very familiar to us, its contents are quite interesting. If you’ve ever worked a graveyard shift then you may have a better understanding of how such an encounter impacted the shepherds that night. Here’s a bunch of blue-collar guys pulling their night shift when, out of nowhere, the night sky is lit ablaze with light, and the very shekina of God pours down upon them. Not quite your average night at work. I think we have a total disconnect at this point, not having experienced anything even remotely close to such an encounter. After calming the terrorized shepherds, the angel informs them that the Savior of the world had been born that very same day. Immediately after the angel provided the logistics of the infant’s whereabouts, an immense celestial choir of angelic beings came alongside the first angel to relay heaven’s take on the event. Their thunderous refrain attributes all the glory for Christ’s earthly birth to the Most High God in the Heavens above. Included in their chorus is heaven’s expressed intention to bless those who accept God’s favor of forgiveness through Christ with indescribable peace.

SIMEON’S SONG OF SALVATION IS THE FINAL MOVEMENT OF THE FIRST CHRISTMAS CANTATA. Luke 2:28-32

In Christian music the gospel song has been a long-standing favorite in the American church. Gospel songs do just what they say they do, they proclaim the gospel, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. While we may think that the gospel song is a more recent phenomenon, this account given to us by Dr. Luke says differently. Here we find a sweet and godly senior citizen singing a song that’s all about Jesus. Simeon recognized the baby in his arms as the Messiah promised long ago by the prophets of old. What’s more, he saw in Jesus a universal Savior Who brought the light of salvation, not only to his own Jewish brethren, but to all the non-Jewish peoples as well.

We’ve seen that God loves music, and how He chose to make it an indispensable part of His son’s birthday celebration. We’ve also seen how people from every walk of life, from the commoner to the sophisticated, all stopped to take part in celebrating history’s most important birth. And we’ve seen how the theme of the first Christmas songs was clearly that of Jesus Christ. The songs of Elizabeth, Mary, Zechariah, the angels, and aged Simeon all majored on the saving and redeeming mission of Jesus the Son of God. It’s my hope that each of us will experience the same delightful joy that they had as we lift our voices in Christmas song during this holy season.