The Christmas Tree and the Cross
Earlier this week, I had the great privilege of attending a conference on Human Values and Religious Liberty, held at the Palace of Parliament. It was the first time I had been inside - and whilst I knew it was big, it was only as I was trying to find the right entrance that I realised just how colossal it is!
The conference had some fascinating speakers, a range of academics, clergy, and representatives of state institutions. During the coffee break, I had the opportunity to poke around a bit and take a few photos. One of them was this image - the (huge!) Christmas tree juxtaposed with a hanging depicting the Crucifixion.
This theme - Christmas and Good Friday side-by-side - is one that we sometimes find in our Christmas carols. We see it, for instance, in the so-called Cherry Tree Carol - which is very ancient; parts of it probably go back to the fifteenth century.
Then Mary took her babe/ and sat him on her knee,/ Saying, My dear son, tell me/ what this world will be.
‘O I shall be as dead, mother,/ as the stones in the wall;/ O the stones in the streets, mother,/ shall mourn for me all.
‘Upon Easter-day, mother,/ my uprising shall be;/ O the sun and the moon, mother,/ shall both rise with me.’
It is also a theme which appears in one of the most hauntingly beautiful Christmas carols - Bethlehem Down. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAiUm_5MIA8) This is much more modern, written in 1927. It was submitted by the composer Peter Warlock and poet Bruce Blunt to The Daily Telegraph’s annual carol competition - in an attempt to alleviate their financial difficulty and pay for their Christmas Eve trip to the pub! Here are the words:
When He is King we will give him the King's gifts,
Myrrh for its sweetness, and gold for a crown,
Beautiful robes", said the young girl to Joseph
Fair with her first-born on Bethlehem Down.
Bethlehem Down is full of the starlight
Winds for the spices, and stars for the gold,
Mary for sleep, and for lullaby music
Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.
When He is King they will clothe Him in grave-sheets,
Myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown,
He that lies now in the white arms of Mary
Sleeping so lightly on Bethlehem Down.
Here He has peace and a short while for dreaming,
Close-huddled oxen to keep Him from cold,
Mary for love, and for lullaby music
Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.
As in the Cherry Tree Carol, Christ’s death is foreshadowed in the events of his Nativity. This might sound a bit morbid to a modern audience: we are used to our Christmas music being upbeat and festive! But it is a reminder - like the photo of the Christmas tree and the Cross - that Christ’s birth in Bethlehem has world-changing consequences. St Irenaeus tells us that in the Incarnation, God ‘became what we are so that we might become what He is.’ Christ’s coming among us in human flesh is part of God’s saving plan: it is the beginning of our salvation, a work that finds its completion in Christ’s death, Resurrection and Ascension. So to consider the Christmas Tree and the Cross together is not somehow morbid, but points us to the wonderful reality that we celebrate in this season - that God has come among us, that God has come among us to save us.