“It Wasn’t His Child” by Trisha Yearwood
— Friday, December 14th, 2012 —
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and we all know what that means. There are lots of reindeer, elves, and lit-up wise men in communities all over America. But we don’t hear a lot about Jesus’ father. No, I don’t mean Jesus’ biological Father, the God of Israel. I mean Jesus’ adopting father Joseph of Nazareth.
When you listen to Christmas music, there are lots of songs about our Lord’s mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary: not just “Ave Maria” but CCM/pop stuff along the lines of “Mary, Did You Know” and so on. But Christmas music, like Christian churches, tends to ignore Joseph.
This week on “The Cross and the Jukebox,” we listen to a song that speaks, somewhat at least, to Joseph’s life as adopting father. This version of “It Wasn’t His Child” is sung by Trisha Yearwood. Let’s talk about why this song, and so many of us, see Joseph the way we do, and what that has to do with our understanding of fatherhood, of sacrifice, and of the gospel.
Hey Dr. Moore, I recently found your podcast The Cross and the Jukebox and I have really enjoyed it.
I wonder if you would do a podcast on Tracy Lawrence’s Time Marches on or Hank Jr’s Family Traditions.
By the way you said Rascal Flatts has never done a song about sickness, you should listen to Skin (Sarah Beth) on the Feels Like Today album, it’s a hidden track at the end.
Thank you for bringing this song to the attention of more people. I burst into tears the first time I heard the line “He worked with his hands in wood / and he died with his hands in wood”. Steve Green makes a similar point in “Rose of Bethlehem” with the lines “Born to glorify the Father / born to wear the thorns for me.”
Have you heard “The Infant King” (Basque melody, words by Sabine Baring Gould”, sung by the Choir of King’s College Cambridge or The Cambridge Singers) ? One of the few choral Christmas carols that sees the cross from the cradle. The music is a gentle lullaby - the lyrics look to Gethsemane, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. The juxtaposition is startling.
For a classical approach, J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio concludes with “Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen” (”Now you are well avenged”. Verse composed by Georg Werner in 1648. See below.) which features festive orchestration over which one hears the melody for “O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded” sung by the choir, but to different words. The German lyrics translated to English:
Now you are well avenged
upon the horde of your enemies,
since Christ has pulverized
what was contrary to you.
Death, devil, sin and hell
are weakened once and for all;
the place of the human race
is next to God.
I was searching to try to find out who originally wrote (composed) the song, “It’s Not His Child”, and my search led me to your site. I would very much like to have heard more about your viewpoint on St. Joseph.
It’s unfortunate that he is always portrayed as an “old man” who probably didn’t care too much about an intimate relationship with a woman - this portrayal, unfortunately, detracts from his virtue. The fact that he was a “stand-up guy” who treated Mary the way he did when he found out she was pregnant (keep in mind that he was probably the only person besides her who knew it wasn’t his child) is the model of what a man should be.
I was searching to try to find out who originally wrote (composed) the song, “It’s Not His Child”. I didn’t get the answer to my question, however, I was led to your site. I would like to have seen more about your viewpoint on St. Joseph.
It’s unfortunate that he is always portrayed as an “old man” who probably didn’t care too much about an intimate relationship with a woman - this portrayal, unfortunately, detracts from his virtue. The fact that he was a “stand-up guy” who treated Mary the way he did when he found out she was pregnant is the model of what a man should be (we have to keep in mind that he was probably the only person besides her who knew it wasn’t his child).