Advent 2
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Readings: Isaiah 11: 1-10 and Matthew 3: 1-12
“A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” So began the first reading today, from Isaiah chapter 11. Many of our Christmas carols and hymns talk about the ‘rod of Jesse’, or the ‘stock of Jesse’. One begins: ‘ a tender shoot has started up from a root of grace; as ancient seers imparted from Jesse’s holy race.”
Many of you will have heard of a Jesse tree, a depiction of the ancestry of Jesus – a sort of ‘Who do you think you are?’ of biblical times. In fact, people say that the idea of putting together a family tree comes from the concept of the Jesse Tree. The Jesse Tree shows how Jesus, and his ‘stock’, if you like, comes from royal ancestry because Jesse was the father of King David. You may remember how after King Saul falls from grace, the Lord instructs the prophet Samuel to summon Jesse, who has not been heard of before, because from among his sons the Lord will provide a king. Jesse and his sons appear, and seven of them pass by Samuel, but none of them will do. David, the youngest son, is out keeping the sheep. Samuel sends for him, and knows that he is the one. Samuel anoints David in the presence of his brothers. So, as one writer puts it, Jesse, a relatively obscure figure in the Old Testament, is vaulted to prominence.
The Tree of Jesse appears in many a stained-glass window and in various art-forms in churches across the world. One of the earliest can be seen in stained-glass in York Minster, apparently going back to the 11th-century. Nearer to us is the Jesse Tree window at Dorchester Abbey in Oxfordshire. It’s slightly unusual as it combines tracery, sculpture and stained glass in a single theme. Very often, as at Dorchester, Jesse is shown at the bottom of the tree, sleeping; from him a shoot rises in the form of a straight stem or a flowering branch. At the apex of the tree will be the Virgin Mary and her child. Sadly, the figures of Christ and the Virgin and Child were smashed in Cromwellian times, but you get the general idea. Usually, not all the generations between Jesse and Jesus are shown, because there are many. The genealogy of Jesus as told in St. Matthew chapter 1 claims fourteen generations between David and the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen from the deportation to the Messiah. So, 28 generations from David to Jesus, and it’s difficult to get all those in a stained-glass window. St. Luke also gives a genealogy of Jesus in his gospel, chapter 3, but it is in parts completely different from Matthew’s. We needn’t worry about that too much today.
But what was important was to show that Jesus had come from a royal lineage, and both Matthew and Luke do that. So today, we read one of those tantalizing prophecies from the Old Testament that seem to speak about Jesus. At the time of Isaiah’s ministry, Israel had been subject to a succession of foreign powers. Prophets like Isaiah began to look forward to a future ‘Son of David’. He would be a Spirit-filled person who would bring equity for the meek of the earth. But John Pridmore notes that the word used for ‘shoot’ signifies a weak, small, tender product – such as is easily broken off. This Spirit-filled figure appears in the later chapters of Isaiah, when the return of the people from Babylon sparked promises that the hope of the arrival of this special figure would be fulfilled. This ‘second David’ would involve his people in his own obedience to God, and so his time will see a restoration of the internal harmony of all creation.
In the Old Testament the Spirit is bestowed on a person for a purpose. And here in Isaiah 11, he is to ‘judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.’ ‘He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.’ Now ‘judgement’ in the Old Testament is not the deliverance of a verdict as we might think of it in a court case today, but judgement was thought of as a setting wrongs to right and bringing deliverance for the people. Once the king comes, Isaiah foresees the conditions of paradise being restored. So we have this familiar Advent theme in Isaiah’s prophecy: yes, the king will come, which is good news, but there will be judgement meted out first. As Bishop Tom Wright says, the Messiah will judge with well-honed accuracy, but out of his judgement will come the time of peace and harmony.
But look at that vision Isaiah treats us to. How often have we heard it at Carol Services: ‘the wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion and the fatling together; the cow and the bear shall graze; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.’ Could we believe that such things were possible? Ben Quash comments that ‘we need pictures to help us understand. This passage, he says, may not be a prediction of what awaits lions at the end of time, so much as a proclamation of the ultimate invincibility of the peace which passes all understanding. That peace will come, just as it existed before the creation of the world and that world’s fall.
It seems significant that, as Isaiah tells us, ‘a little child shall lead them.’ Another heart-warming vision. Are we meant to think of the child Jesus, or remember that Jesus himself set a child in the midst of the disciples and said ‘the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’
One of the puzzles and wonders of prophecy is the many layers of interpretation which can be put on the proclamation of the prophets. Part of Isaiah’s prophecy would happen within his own lifetime or in the foreseeable future. Part of it could only be understood after the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, and part of it, even now two thousand years after those events, is still about the future.
Isaiah looks forward to the day when’ the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.’ That’s a verse that has always intrigued me, because surely the waters are the sea, but I think we get the idea. How wonderful it would be to experience the time when the whole of creation will be made to see that it is to live in harmony, and will be reconciled in total peace.
And going back to the Jesse Tree for a moment, we can see it not just as showing the story of Jesus and his royal lineage, but as a way of telling the story of God’s plan from the beginning of time, to redeem his people by sending a Saviour. I like to think we are part of that Tree. Just as we would feature on a family tree, our Christian belonging makes us part of the never-ending Jesse Tree, with blessings coming to us from those who have gone before; those who brought us to faith in Jesus. And who are we going to pass on the Good News to?