I love the title of this song because this may be the most important question in the history of our world. It is certainly the most important question in my life. How you answer this question will change the course of your life.

What child is this?

Is he the born-out-of-wedlock human son of young Jewish couple? Sure, he would grow up to display moral purity and a passion for compassion. But is he more?

The song’s chorus answers the question posted by its title:

This, this is Christ the King,

Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:

Haste, haste to bring him laud,

The Babe, the Son of Mary!

If Jesus is the Christ, then everything He says and teaches has eternal importance for us. If he is God, in human form, teaching us how to be more holy and live more justly, then how could we ignore?

There are many moral teachers whose ideas I can ignore. They may be profitable, but in the last analysis they are not-essential in the grand scheme of things.

Jesus spends 3 years laying out the blueprint for what we’re supposed to do. Love others with as much gusto as we love ourselves. Serve the world with our strength. Bind up the sick and brokenhearted, and feed the poor.

The first glimpses of Jesus were as an insignificant newborn child. Someone that we’d ignore. A dirty kid in a manger, so what?

I find it ironic and perhaps indicting that Jesus spends so much of His ministry pointing His followers BACK to those same people–the downtrodden, the outcast, the unlovable, and the insignificant.

Christ the King, lead us in your Kingdom’s work. Open our eyes to those you came to save, and heal, and set free. We apologize for the times we’ve lost focus and made your Kingdom about something else…something other than following you. This Advent, draw us closer to your heart and send us farther out into the world to bring your love where it is needed most.