Sermon for Holy Saturday, April 19, 2025
Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24+Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16+1 Peter 4:1-8+Matthew 27:57-66
What Child is this who, laid to rest,
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
When William Dix penned the words to this beloved Christmas carol in 1865, he probably did not have today in mind, the day Christ lay in the tomb. To be honest, this hymn has never come to mind for me on this day, either. The warmth and joy of Christmas seems a distant memory.
That is until this week when a friend of mine who is the rector of a church in Tucson posted on social media that it is the custom at his church to sing this carol just before the reading of the Passion Narrative on Palm Sunday. In the church leaflet, it explains why.
Today, in a custom striking for its incongruity, we sing What Child is This? just before the Passion is sung. We will sing it with the tenderness with which one sings of lament and loss.
The hymn marks the first time this child was laid to rest in Mary’s arms. It also can be read and sung as marking the last time that same child was laid to rest in that same Holy Mother’s arms.
The hymn marks not only that moment of profound tenderness. It also directs our attention toward our own approach to the throne of grace. It calls us to bring our own gifts and offer them to the King of kings—a King whose crowning comes with the mocking thorns and “Hail, King of the Jews.”
The hymn makes note of that third gift—myrrh, that bitter perfume. It was the gift that pointed toward the end we hear of today.
We will sing What Child is This? It will come as a surprise and it will jar our sense of the seasons.
Yet great grief is always a jarring thing. As great joy shall be, too.[1]
In orthodox theology, our salvation is all viewed of a piece. Birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension are one story, not separate events, all part of God's plan to save us from our sinful, broken ways. You cannot have the manger without the cross, you cannot have the feeding of the 5,000 without the Last Supper, you cannot have the Transfiguration without the Ascension.
Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you;
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
Many years ago, in a church I served as organist, each year at the Christmas pageant, we would create a tableau with whatever kids showed up. We had plenty of symbols for each role - candy canes for shepherd (these were very popular), wrapped gifts for magi, a fuzzy cap for sheep, and so on. Each child took their place in the tableau until the final character, the Baby Jesus, was brought forward, usually the youngest baby in the congregation. But this particular year, just before Baby Jesus was carried forward, the rector asked the assembled children what was missing from this scene, assuming they all knew it was the Baby Jesus. But one little boy of about four waved his arm in the air wildly and shouted out "the cross!"
This innocent little boy could not have known how right he was. The cross is as much a part of the nativity scene as the manger is of the tomb.
On this day when we reflect on the grief and sorrow of those dealing with the horror and shock of Jesus’s violent death, we know what lies on the other side. The same babe who lay in Mary's arms is the one whom she cradled in death a mere hours ago. It's all the same story. It's our story. God continues to do the unexpected and outrageous out of love for each one of us.
So bring Him incense, gold, and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby;
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary. [2]
[1] https://www.facebook.com/robert.hendrickson.5817
[2] https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/What_Child_Is_This/