O Root of Jesse
Isaiah 11:1-10
December 5, 2021 anno Domini
Today’s O Antiphon presents us with a problem. Which is it? Is the Christ the root of Jesse or the branch of Jesse? The antiphon says “root.” The verse from O Come, O Come Emmanuel says, “branch.” Is the Christ the root or the branch of Jesse? You have probably guessed the answer if you’ve been Lutheran long enough. The answer is yes.
Last Sunday “O Wisdom” took us back to creation to see Christ. On Wednesday “O Adonai” took us to Mount Horeb and the burning bush, then to Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments. “O Root of Jesse” moves us closer to the incarnation anticipating the Lord of David being a Son of David.
About 1000 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Samuel was told by the Lord to go visit Jesse the Bethlehemite to choose the next King of Israel. Jesse had eight sons and he paraded them past Samuel from oldest to youngest. Jesse thought so little of his youngest son that he didn’t even bring him in from the field. In Biblical times the firstborn was most important. The second born was important. Three boys and you’ve already got a spare heir, but after three – that’s just extra workers. Samuel had to ask Jesse to bring in his youngest from the pasture and David was chosen King of Israel. From the very day David was chosen King the Lord teaches us that He does not judge or work by appearances. Firstborn schmirstborn, in God’s Kingdom the last of Jesses’ sons will be first. David will be king.
Over a dozen times in the Old Testament God promised that the Kingdom of David would be forever and that one of David’s sons would always be on the throne. Everyone likely thought that David would make Israel great again. But the Kingdom didn’t go according to man’s plan. After his son Solomon reigned David’s Kingdom was divided into north and south, ruled by two different kings. Within 300 years of David’s coronation the northern kingdom was gone. The south only lasted a hundred years longer, and since 586 B.C. no son of David has sat on the throne of David in a palace in Jerusalem.
By 586 the great Tree of Jesse – the Kingdom of David was a stump. God’s people were unfruitful and with the Assyrians and Babylonians God laid His axe to the Tree. The Tree of Jesse was a stump. But remember appearances can be deceiving, especially in God’s Kingdom.
Sometimes it appears as if God has forgotten His promises. Sometimes God looks like He is doing the opposite of what He said or the opposite of how you would expect your God to act. David’s palace was gone. God’s house was gone. But David’s line of heirs went on. All you saw above ground was the stump where Jesse’s tree used to be, but underground, hidden from everyone’s eyes there was still life in the line of David.
This is how Saint Matthew describes it (read Matthew 1:12-16). Those genealogies aren’t the most exciting parts of Scripture – about as interesting as a stump, unless you’re waitijng for God’s Savior. There was nothing to see for 586 years, but God was at work, until the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great granddaughter of David gave birth a son, in the city of David, and named Him Jesus, the Savior of the world.
To this King, even as an infant, the nations came. The shepherds of Israel came, grown men, rough and tumble men, to see a newborn baby and they praised God they had seen their King. The wise men came, and they bowed down and worshipped Jesus as a little toddler and gave Him royal gifts.
How did this little Jesus from little Bethlehem establish His Kingdom? He was crowned with thorns and then nailed to a dead tree. All His followers scattered and once again it looked like David’s Kingdom, the hope of the world, was but a stump, a dead tree, and a dead man buried in the ground. God’s work was hidden from the eyes and revealed only to faith.
The Jews may have thought they cut God’s Christ down and killed Jesus. But in that garden tomb, the Father raised His Son to life again. That was the reward for taking away sin and the end result of beating the Devil at His own game. From that garden tomb a little branch of David came forth and immediately began to bear fruit when Mary Magdalene believed, and Peter and John and Thomas believed. By the time Jesus ascended 120 believed. 10 days later the Kingdom grew to 3000. The reign of Jesus grew from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Patrick went to Ireland. And Boniface to the Germans. The branch of David has borne fruit for 2000 years. You are that fruit. You have been born again from above. Connected to Jesus by faith under the reign and rule of David’s Son and David’s Lord – the root and branch of jesse.
But remember, this Kingdom is not a kingdom of the world. This is not a Kingdom where you see the might of your ruler. You could not see the root of Jesse still alive in the Old Testament and you wouldn’t know the infant Jesus was King unless the angel told you and the star led you and you believed. Our King is first by becoming last. Our King lives by dying and invites us to do the same. Our King comes humbly and lets His enemies boast and battle and belittle Him. At times the Church has taken up arms. Scripture says it is okay to defend your life and the lives of those under your authority, but Jesus doesn’t need you to defend Him. He simply needs you to confess Him. His Spirit by His Word and by His Water, and by His body and blood spreads the Kingdom.
The Son of David is the root of Jesse and the branch of Jesse. He was dead and now lives. The nations have come to Him and are still coming to Him. We are among those nations – few of us here are Abraham’s children by blood, but we are all Abraham’s children by faith.
There is one more way in which the Root of Jesse draws us closer to the Incarnation. The first two O Antiphons were not touchable or tangible, but in this antiphon we have a stump, a root, and a branch. We have Jesse and David and Solomon and Mary and Joseph and Jesus. Our Savior is a real man, who was born to a real woman, who walked on earth in modern day Israel, who died on a wooden cross outside Jerusalem, and who rose again from a tomb and was seen by hundreds of people. Our salvation is not a wish or a hope or an idea or a philosophy. It is a real man who is really God who came to free us from real sin, real death, and a real devil. In the name of Jesus. Amen.