O Radix Jesse,
qui stas in signum populorum,
super quem continebunt reges os suum,
quem gentes deprecabuntur:
veni ad liberandum nos,
jam noli tardare
O Root of Jesse,
who stand as a sign for the people,
kings stand silent in your presence,
whom the nations will worship:
come to set us free,
put it off no longer.
Christ is born to us. Glorify him.
Root of Jesse. Descendant, branch of the family. Christ is the descendant of Jesse, the offspring of David to whom God had promised an eternal throne. And David sang, “Who am I, that God would thus show me his mercy?”
This Root is a sign. On him the Spirit of the Lord rests, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. This Root is a righteous judge, who vindicates the oppressed and kills the wicked. Righteousness and faithfulness gird his loins and belt his waist. Our judgments are flawed. We fight to enact justice, only to further oppress. But the Root of Jesse enacts perfect justice and perfect peace. Isaiah says of him:
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9 (ESV)).
This Root is a sign of whom all the nations shall inquire, and who shall gather his remnant from among all peoples. Indeed, in Paul, the Root is particularly a signal of hope to the nations (Romans 15:8-12). This descendant of David, Israel's Messiah, has become the hope of the world, the goyim, in whom passionate conflicts cease, who restores the ordered creation.
This Root is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. The revelation of Christ given to John reads:
And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying,"Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth."
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped. (Rev. 5:1-14 (ESV))
And the nations are silent at this sign. Kings are more often pawns to their own advisers. Kings can be bribed and placated. But what does one do with the slain Lamb? How can one manipulate him who rejected all temptation? What reply can we have to one who became sin for us? Only him who was crucified could reveal the unfathomable judgments of God's mercy. And the only response to such a one who in being killed conquers all, is self-abasement.
The Latin of the antiphon which is here translated “whom the nations will worship” may better be rendered “whom the nations will entreat” or “to whom the nations will pray.” But prayer and worship are separated by no distance greater than the length of one's love. For the heart that prays, entreaty is worship. For the heart that worships, all entreaties are prayer.
The Root of Jesse stands in our midst, a slain Lamb, as a sign. Rendering righteous judgments, girded by faithfulness. This Root is solid, strong. We may place the weight of all our hopes and expectations upon it, and let fall those which are not truth and integrity. Our prayers and entreaties, founded on such faithful promises, confronted by the marvelous image, soon lapse into silence. Not even Kings dare recline in the presence of the Root of Jesse. All our crowns cast down at his feet, we can only be still, amazed and awed at the terrible mercy of his peace. Worthy is the Lamb.
What are these hopes and expectations? What are the content of these our prayers and entreaties? In all things they are little more than the hope of restoration, the promise of life and wholeness. During these dark days we long for light even when we are unaware of such longing. And so the mother that prays over her sick child may know nothing of the Root of Jesse, may never have heard the song of the many-eyed Lamb. But in that Root, in the work of that Lamb are all her hopes and desires fulfilled. The husband who sits silent in the empty house, pierced by faithlessness, bereft of the family that once was his, stolen the hearts of his beloved by another less worthy than himself, this man's longings can only be met ultimately in him who was forsaken by all and calls all to himself. The young woman who stares at herself as an alien thing, exiled in her own body, will one day find her integration in the lightning flash that will split the sky east to west. The young man who lingers at day's end behind all his co-workers, and mystified at the utter banality of the profession he sought with such passion, will in the call of Jesse's Root the daily measure of manna that will grant him life.
The Root of Jesse has appeared to us, marveling the nations. Struck dumb, faint with longing, we cast our crowns at his feet. Grant us deliverance. Make haste to help us.
Christ is born to us. Glorify him.
Posted by Clifton at November 25, 2004 06:30 AM | TrackBack