December 23
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Luke 2:17-18
Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
“Go Tell It on the Mountain” is an American Negro Spiritual that is particularly popular at Christmastime. Although there are alternative versions that reference Easter or Jesus’ Lordship in general the primary reference is to the birth of Jesus. It is therefore considered by some to be a Christmas Carol.
For those who are not familiar with them, Negro Spirituals, these days also known as African American, Black spirituals, or just spirituals, is a genre of Christian music that is associated with African Americans. Negro spirituals come from a fusion of the sub-Saharan African cultural heritage and storytelling traditions, with the experiences of bondage in slavery, during the period of the transatlantic slave trade and later during hundreds of years of slavery and oppression in the Americas.
Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born!
While shepherds kept their watching
O’er silent flocks by night
Behold throughout the heavens
There shone a holy light
All through the New Testament birth narratives we focused on the message of the birth of Jesus being told to individuals, critical to the event, by the angelic messenger Gabriel, and in the case of the shepherds, a whole choir of angels.
It makes me wonder, why did these shepherds, a fair bit down the socio-religious ladder of the times, qualify for a visitation by, not one, but a host of angels. And these angels didn’t just give them information, the also sang praises to God in their presence. Praises that we sing to today, in the hymn “Gloria in excelsis Deo”.
We established very early in this series that the “Christmas” story began with Gabriel’s arrival to talk to Zacharias about a son that the old man and his wife were going to have. The boy to be called John, later John the Baptist.
At John circumcision ceremony, when his father’s speech was restored, he prophesied as recorded in Luke 1:67-79.
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins,
Through the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;
To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:76-79.
A clue as to what made a seemingly random bunch of shepherds a special audience for an angelic choir rendering praises to God, we must look at the first recorded encounter between John and Jesus as their ministries were getting under way.
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ 31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.”” John 1:29-31
The first truly New Testament description of Jesus is that of Lamb of God. And what do Lambs need? A Shepherd. It might be useful to also to note here that Jesus made seven “I am” statements recorded in John narrative. The only one of those in which He likened Himself to a particular human endeavour is when He declared Himself to be a Good Shepherd, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” John 10:11.
He continued later, “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” John 10:14-16.
Some researchers tell us that shepherds were despised by the sophisticated Jews and the Temple leaders because it was hard for them to keep the ceremonial law and all of the traditions of hand washing and the like because the flocks for which they had responsibility made too many demands on them.
Clearly, the choice of the shepherds was not arbitrary but significant. Some scholars argue that these were special shepherds, maybe those who were known to be near Bethlehem who took care of the flocks of special sheep to ensure that unblemished lambs were always available for the temple offerings. It might have been that those shepherds that took care of the lambs for temple offerings were the first to get the good news and see the Lamb of God. The lamb that would be a sacrifice and truly take away the sins of the world.
To be clear, I am speculating here about the choice of the shepherds. However, we know for certain that the chosen shepherds were near Bethlehem where the temple flocks were kept. We know that these shepherds were celebrated with an Angelic choir, we know that they immediately left the flocks and went to see the Lamb of God, and we know that they couldn’t keep this to themselves.
This brings us back to the Negro spiritual that gave our devotional today its name, and to the key verse at the beginning.
The shepherds feared and trembled
When lo! Above the Earth
Rang out the angel chorus
That hailed our Savior’s birth
The shepherds couldn’t contain themselves. We should try to contain ourselves. This that has happened changes everything. Prophecy was fulfilled and the journey to Calvary begun.
Down in a lowly manger
Our humble Christ was born
And God sent us salvation
That blessed Christmas morn
Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born!
Think on these things:
- Do you think that we are still able to tell the story of Jesus’ birth in the middle of all of the Christmas activity?
- Since people think that all of what is taking place at this time has something to do with Jesus’ birth how could we start a different conversation?
- What could you do to have at least one conversation to go tell it like the shepherds did?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be true tellers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex