Robert Cottrill - Who are the Merry Gentlemen?

One of the chapters in Robert Cottrill's book, Discovering the Songs of Christmas, is about the old carol, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."

[This is such a delightful book, and if the author had not responded to one of these blogs, I would never have known about the book --  and I would have missed a real treasure!]

Anyway, here's the story about that carol.

It was written about 500 years ago.

Our wonderful English language, with its vibrant words and phrases, is in constant change, and this carol is an example of how the meaning of many words changes through the years.

The text does not refer to  "merry gentlemen," as though they were some giddy revelers. Nor is the word "rest" used as it is today. Five centuries ago it meant "make" or "keep."  A modern paraphrase of the words might read, "May God keep you joyful, gentlemen. May He fill your hearts with gladness!"  -- Robert Cottrill

[Also, there should be a comma between "Merry" and "Gentlemen" and many publishers forget to put that important punctuation in place.]

The poem then reminds us of the words of the angel in Luke 2:10: Do not be afraid, for I bring you good tidings of great joy. And then in verse 11 we find the reason for that great joy: For there is born to you...a Savior....

So let's all sing it -- like Anna would have sung it -- sing it loudly and joyfully --  (Remember God loves to hear us sing -- He must, because He keeps reminding us to sing to Him and about Him!)

God rest ye merry, Gentlemen

Let nothing you dismay

Remember Christ our Savior

Was born upon this day

To save us all from Satan's power

When we were gone astray

O tidings of comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy!

P.S. During the time of the Reformation (1500's) carols were very popular among the people. They were not sung in church, but were sort of folk songs -- expressing the joy of the common people during the Christmas season, and, in fact, they were sung throughout the year. (Maybe they understood the Gospel message better than most of the churchmen and religious leaders in those days.)

Then in the 1640's the Puritans took over the government of England and the Puritan Parliament outlawed the celebration of Christmas and all festivals -- saying they were all too pagan and worldly. Christmas carols could not be sung anytime. (My ancestors came to the New World from London in the 1640s -- I don't know exactly what prompted their voyage to this wilderness, but maybe they just wanted to keep singing Christmas carols!)

About 175 years later Queen Victoria came to the throne (1837) and she revived the practice of carol singing. She loved the carols herself and urged the clergy to begin teaching them to the congregations, and "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" was one of the first!

That's why much of our Christmas imagery today has a "Victorian touch" - a reminder that Queen Victoria restored Christmas! And what a celebration it became!

P.P.S. Remember the White Witch in Narnia? While she ruled, it was "always winter and never Christmas." What a sad state of affairs....always winter...but never Christmas....

For those of us who have received the Gospel message -- it is always Christmas!

Christmas - An unsentimental and realistic holiday? - from Timothy Keller

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned....For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.

                       -- Isaiah 9:2, 5-7

Christmas ... is the most unsentimental, realistic way of looking at life.

It does not say, "Cheer up! If we all pull together we can make the world a better place."

The Bible never counsels indifference to the forces of darkness, only resistance, but it supports no illusions that we can ever defeat them.

Christianity does not agree with the optimistic thinkers who say, "We can fix things if we try hard enough." Nor does Christianity agree with the pessimist who see only a dystopian future.

The message of Christianity is, instead, "Things really are this bad, and we can't heal or save ourselves; things really are this dark--nevertheless, there is hope."

The Christmas message is that "on those living in the land of the shadow a light has dawned."

Notice that it does not say, "from the world a light has sprung," but "upon the world a light has dawned."

It has come from outside. There is light outside of this world, and Jesus has come from it to save us.

   From Timothy Keller's amazing book, Hidden Christmas, Chapter 1. Read it this month - you'll be so glad you did.

Christmas - God is with us!

The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and call him Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).

Six hundred years later.....

The angel said to Joseph:

Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sin.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel' -- which means, 'God with us' (Matthew 1:22-23).



At the beginning of Matthew's Gospel - Immanuel - God with us -- and in the closing verses:

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).


God is with us. God is with us always.

So many wonderful Names of God are given to us in Scripture:

Messiah,
Redeemer,
Priest,
King,
Alpha and Omega,
Beginning and End,
Wonderful Counselor,
Savior,
the Only Wise God,
Ancient of Days,
the Lamb Slain from the Foundation of the World,
the Lion of Judah,
Almighty,
Good Shepherd,
Anointed One,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace,
Resurrection and the Life,
Light of the World,
Door,
Bread of Life,
King of Kings,
Faithful and True, 
Lord of Lords...
and so many more...

My favorite? IMMANUEL!

God is with us! Always!

From John's Revelation of the future new Jerusalem:

Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God (Revelation 21:3).


God is with us.

God is with us always.

God will be with us forever!

What's your favorite?

Not too early to begin to reflect - James Montgomery Boice

....If you make room for Christ, then from this day on, the world will have no room for you.

We see this in Luke 2:7. For, notice, it does not say "because there was no room for him in the inn." It says "for them." That includes Mary and Joseph as well as the infant Jesus.

And who are Christ's mother and father and sister and brother today? Are they not those who do the will of Christ's Father, as He told us in Matthew 12:48-50?

He replied to him, "who is my mother, and who are are my brothers?" Pointing to his disciples he said, "Here are my mother and brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.

Are they not those who open their hearts to Him and follow Him?

Well, then, if you have followed Him, the world will have no more room for you than it had for Him.

You must not think that if you follow Jesus you will be praised for doing so. The "angels will rejoice over every sinner who repents," no matter how insignificant in the world's eyes.

But the world will not rejoice.

The world will scorn your decision. The world will seek to put you down. Then, if it cannot get you to renounce your decision or compromise your stand, it will turn its back on you and go its own way, shutting you out.

That is what Jesus foretold. It was He who said, "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you" (John 15:19).

Jesus said, "Woe to you when men speak well of you" (Luke 6:26).

Jesus said to His disciples, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

To be Christ's follower is to be a person without a country. A displaced person. It is to follow Him into the poverty of the early years at Nazareth, the loneliness of the itinerant ministry, eventually to the cross, all the time knowing that the disciple, like the Master, has no place to lay his head.

Taken from The Christ of Christmas, by James Montgomery Boice

Christmas - No more myrrh...

No more myrrh...

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh (Matthew 2:11).



We don't know much about the wise men. How many were there? (There were 3 gifts mentioned, but no mention of how many "wise men" brought them.)

Were they from the area of Babylon? Many think so. Others say, "No, because Babylon was a well-known location and would have been given as their homeland and so China, or some other exotic place is most likely." 

Kenneth Bailey reminds us that "from the east" was an expression used for many centuries, even today, to mean "across the Jordan," and so likely they were from Arabia, where frankincense and myrrh were found.

How long did it take them to get to Jerusalem?

We don't know. Maybe up to 2 years. We know Jesus was no longer a new-born baby, and He was in a house by the time of their arrival. Why did Herod ask that children under the age of 2 years be killed? Did he calculate that the little baby was now a small child? (It appears from the record that he did.) Did it take them that long to travel to Jerusalem?

And I have another question: Why did the wise men come to worship the child? Were they accustomed to worshipping Kings? Did they worship Herod? Or they could have gone all the way to Rome if they wanted to worship a famous king.

Who were these mysterious men and who gave them all the information? Maybe they had read the available Greek translation of the Old Testament and knew all the prophecies.

I guess all those answers are locked in a great safe somewhere awaiting a later time to be opened for us.

Anyway, I think about the gifts. We have all heard the symbolism: gold for the King; incense for worship; myrrh for burial needs.



Gold is easy. It's the precious metal of kings and has been for centuries.

Incense is significant because it was used in Temple worship. It was mixed with the oil that was used to anoint the priests. It was part of the meal offerings that were given for thanksgiving and praise to God. It gave the offering its pleasant odor.

Paul compared the gifts he received from the Philippians and praised them because  "they are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasant to God" (Philippians 4:18).

It was most important that incense was never mixed with sin offerings, which were meat and wine. Sin offerings never included incense. Only the offerings of thanks and praise were to have incense. Christ would never need to appear at the Temple with a sin offering. His offerings would always include incense.

What about myrrh? Much is made of this gift since it was used primarily for embalming. It was very costly. It was not  a typical baby gift. But for the wise men it was a gift of faith, just like their hazardous journey from the "east" to Jerusalem was a journey of faith.

We don't know what they knew about Christ's suffering. Probably they had the Old Testament scrolls and were familiar with the passages about the suffering Messiah.

Were they Jews who had been dispersed during the times of the Babylonians?

Or were they Gentiles who perhaps possessed some documents, oral and written,  that had been handed down from one generation to the next after the fall of Babel? Did their information predate Babel?

We don't know, but the ideas are certainly fascinating.

But what we do know is that myrrh was for embalming, not a gift for an ordinary baby.

What else do we know? Isaiah 60 foretells the second coming of Christ and His reign from Mount Zion. The text tells us...."The LORD rises upon you and His glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn...and all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the  praise of the LORD."

Gold and incense....no myrrh.....because the future coming of the Messiah will be a King reigning in glory....no suffering..no death...no need for myrrh.

WOW....DOXOLOGY!!!!