Christmas Morning: Son Rise on a New DaySample

Christmas is truly a musical holiday. I love the “soundtrack” that plays in the background of December every year. Whether you are in church, driving in the car, or even shopping at the local mall, songs of our Savior fill the air from Thanksgiving to New Year’s.

Sometimes we think that our love for music at Christmas time is a part of the commercialization of the holiday, but a closer look at the biblical account of Christmas reveals that the first Advent was also a musical. From Mary’s “Magnificat” to angels singing, music and poetry were key ways heaven and earth welcomed the newborn King.

As you look at the albums first recorded around the birth of Christ, however, you will notice that both famous AND more obscure songs were recorded around the time of the manger. Right after Mary’s hit song, Zechariah records what some may see as the “B side” to her 45. You may have skipped this track in the past, but today, I want you to “press play” and read its beautiful lyrics found in Luke 1:67-79.

Zechariah sings a song at the circumcision ceremony on the eighth day of his son John’s life. After waiting a lifetime for the joy of fatherhood, it is striking that Zechariah spends most of the time at his son’s circumcision singing about Jesus, not John. Zechariah “got it” . . . he understood that the real joy in his AND John’s life would be their connection to Jesus. Zechariah waited a lifetime to be a father, but God’s people had waited a few millennia for the Messiah’s birth. Therefore, the song centers around Jesus and His work.

At the end of the song, there is one of the most poetic and beautiful statements about the work of Jesus in all of Scripture. “Because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

I am so thankful that in Christ we have a hope that one day all death will be replaced with life eternal, and all darkness will be illuminated with His light. This is the reason Zechariah sings . . . and the reason we sing as well.