12th December 2023

Christmas unwrapped – come all ye faithful
This is the third in a series of Christmas studies.

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’
Luke 2:15 (NIVUK)

‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ is a popular Christmas carol, the Latin version of which was written by John Francis Wade who fled England after the 1745 Jacobite rebellion to teach music in the school for British Roman Catholic exiles in Douai in France. Some have seen in this carol a secret political code linked to the Jacobite rebellion, and that it is actually a birth ode to Bonnie Prince Charlie. In this interpretation ‘faithful’ refers to the faithful Catholic Jacobites. ‘Bethlehem’ is a common Jacobite cipher for England, and angels (angelorum), is a pun on English (anglorum). Come and behold him, born the king of angels supposedly means, ‘Come and behold him, born the king of the English’, that is to say, Bonnie Prince Charlie. However, the original text for the carol has been attributed to various groups and individuals, including St. Bonaventure in the 13th century and King John IV of Portugal in the 17th century.¹

The message of this carol for Christians today is not some code that only the initiates of a secret society or group can understand. Rather it draws us all into the Christmas story in Luke 2:8-16. In this well-known passage, angels appear to shepherds, glorifying God because of the birth of the Saviour, the Messiah, who lies in a manger in Bethlehem. After the angels leave, the shepherds decide to go to Bethlehem to find the Christ child.

Today this Christmas carol invites all of God’s faithful to come and behold the King of Angels for ourselves, including you and me. Of course, we cannot literally visit Jesus in the manger, but we can come to Bethlehem in our imaginations as we allow the story of Jesus’s birth to inspire us.

The original Latin text of this carol consisted of four verses. The first calls us to see the infant Jesus, born as a human being in Bethlehem’s stable. The second reminds us that the child is God himself: God of God, light of light…Very God, begotten, not created: O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. The third pictures the song of the angels heard by the shepherds. Then the final verse offers praise and adoration to the Word, who was with the Father from the beginning of time.

As we come again to Bethlehem let’s reflect on the miracle of Jesus: Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing. And along with the shepherds and the angels let’s come in worship, adoring the Christ who was once born in a manger, lived on this earth, died on the cross, rose on the third day, and is now alive forever more.

Prayer
Loving Father, as we celebrate the reality of Christmas, let’s discover the wonder and joy of living in submission with the Creator, who became a child in a manger to die and rise as King. In Jesus’s name, we pray, Amen.

Study by Barry Robinson

¹ O Come, All Ye Faithful – Wikipedia

About the writer:
Barry Robinson is a minister in Grace Communion International and Regional Pastor for Southern England, the Midlands, and Wales

Local congregation:
Grace Communion West Hampstead
Sidings Community Centre
150 Brassey Road
West Hampstead
London
NW6 2BA

Meeting time:
Sunday 12.30 pm

Local congregational contact:
Gordon Brown
gordon.brown@gracecom.church

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church