The Christmas Carols: Past, Present, & Future Hopeنموونە

Day 25

Go Tell It on the Mountain

Read: John 10:10-11

From a secular, American perspective, Christmas is a marketer’s dreamland. Beginning in early November, targeted marketing campaigns convince us of the gifts - trinkets, toys, bling, and tech do-dads - that we and our loved ones “need”. However, at some point the happiness we thought we were buying often turns out to be just a bill of goods.

The first Christmas gift ever given was provided by our Heavenly Father to mankind. The gift was the baby Jesus, born in Bethlehem, and God launched a “marketing campaign” to announce His arrival. Angels appeared, advertising the birth of Jesus to certain shepherds and explaining the Good News. About this same time, God also placed a marquee in the sky, illuminating the way to the Savior for those in the East. This star would be a cosmic press release announcing His coming to a set of gift-bearing star gazers.

Now, because of our past experiences with marketers, the language used above might seem crude and insincere when applied to God’s announcements. However, this illustration is important because marketing a product that is actually necessary is not self-serving but loving. On the night of Christ’s birth, God launched a loving media blitz to remind the people of their need and to illustrate how Jesus was the One who could bring them joy.

Since the needs Christ addresses are not imagined but actual, and since Jesus’ provision delivers all it promises, and it does not disappoint . . . the marketing of the coming of Christ is a blessed thing! Can you imagine if scientists discovered the cure for cancer but never told anyone? That would be crazy! We would want them to market that cure because its provision is so important and its need so real. In the same way, the arrival of the Savior of the world is not a truth to keep quiet but one to shout from the mountaintops.

Think about that as you consider what God wants you to do with the good news that the baby in Bethlehem is the One who saves us from our sins. God wants us to be part of His marketing campaign, spreading the good news to all whom we interact with. God began this campaign on the first Christmas and is continuing it through us today. “Go tell it on the mountain! Jesus Christ is born!”

Go Tell It on the Mountain

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.

Go, tell it on the mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere.
Go, tell it on the mountain,
That Jesus Christ is born.

The shepherds feared and trembled,
When lo! above the earth,
Rang out the angel chorus,
That hailed the Savior’s birth.

Go, tell it on the mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere.
Go, tell it on the mountain,
That Jesus Christ is born.

Down in a lowly manger,
The 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.