O come, O come Immanuel

Scriptures: Matthew 1:22-23; Isaiah 11:1-10; Luke 1:78; Luke 19:1-10; Revelation 3:7-12

O come, O come Immanuel and ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel, shall come to thee, O Israel!

O come, O come Thou Lord of might, who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height

In ancient times didst give the law in cloud and majesty and awe.

O come, Thou rod of Jesse, free Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;

From depths of hell Thy people save, and give them victory o’er the grave.

O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by Thy justice here;

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadows put to flight.

O come, Thou Key of David, come, and open wide our heavenly home.

The captives from their prison free, and conquer death’s deep misery.

When we were training for ministry I remember one of our fellow students, who was Maori, explaining to us how Maori think:

Ka mura, Ka muri – we walk into the future backwards
[Walk backwards across the stage]
He was saying that we can’t see the future – we don’t know what’s coming – but when we look back at our heritage we see the way to go
It’s by looking to trustworthy examples from the past that we find a way forward.

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series

In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.
As we look back at these hymns we see where we have come from and it helps to show us the way forward.

With today being the first Sunday in Christmas Advent we will be taking a closer look at the hymn O come, O come Immanuel

This song is a hymn of hope centered around the advent (or coming) of Jesus
We can’t be sure who wrote the words for O come, O come Immanuel
It was originally a series of Latin chants prayed from around the seventh or eighth century AD/CE.

There were seven chants each containing a different Latin name for Christ:

Sapientia – which means Wisdom (Proverbs 8:22)
Adonai – which means Lord (Exodus 20:1)
Radix Jesse – the Root (or Rod) of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1)
Clavis David – Key of David (Rev. 3:7),
Oriens – which means Dayspring (Luke 1:78)
Rex Gentium – which means King of Nations (Hag. 2:7)
And Immanuel – God with us (Isaiah 7:14).

These seven chants were sung in anticipation of Christ’s birth on the seven evenings preceding Christmas Eve. [1]

The version we sing today has five verses (not seven) as it omits the verses about Christ being Wisdom and King of the Nations

Various people have translated the Latin into English at different times but the version we are most familiar with was translated by John Mason Neale in 1861

Although John Neale did not write the song (he only translated it) I think his story is worth mentioning because his work of translation came at great personal cost
Born in London in 1818, Neale studied at Cambridge, and was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1842.
He was offered a parish but chronic ill health prevented him from taking it. So, in 1846, Neale was put in charge of Sackville College, which was an alms house, sort of like emergency housing for the poor
In 1854 Neale co-founded the Sisterhood of St. Margaret, an order of women in the Anglican Church dedicated to nursing the sick.

In addition to his social work, in helping the sick and the poor, John Neale also translated many old hymns from other traditions of the Christian faith, like the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches

He did this at a time when there was a great divide between Anglicans and Catholics
Neale walked into the future backwards – he believed it was by looking to the past that the church would find a way forward
Unfortunately, Neale was misunderstood by his fellow Anglicans
People thought he was an agent of the Vatican, assigned to destroy the Anglican Church by subverting it from within.
Once he was attacked at a funeral and, from time to time, unruly crowds threatened to stone him or burn his house to the ground.
It’s amazing how times have changed.
Because of the courage and vision of people like Neale we now sing from the same hymn sheet as it were and enjoy good relationships with other denominations.
(Speaking of which, I hope to see you at the combined Advent service at Our Lady of Fatima (Catholic) church here in Tawa this evening. 7pm.)
John Neale persevered and his basic goodness eventually won the confidence of many who had fiercely opposed him.
The Sisterhood of St. Margaret survived and prospered, as did many of the hymns he translated. [2]
More than anyone else, John Mason Neale made English-speaking congregations aware of the centuries-old tradition of Latin, Greek, Russian, and Syrian hymns.

Each verse of O come, O come Immanuel begins with a request, a heartfelt prayer, for Christ to come to his people

O come Immanuel, O come Thou Lord of might, O come Thou rod of Jesse, O come Thou Key of David, come
And each verse is answered by the refrain: Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

Advent means coming – during Advent we remember Jesus’ first coming to earth 2000 years ago and we remember he will come again in glory

The Christian belief we find in these verses is that we don’t come to God – God comes to us
It is impossible for us to come to God in our own strength – we can’t get to heaven. Rather God brings heaven to earth, in the form of Jesus.

It may seem strange to us how the words rejoice, rejoice, are sung in such a sad way – but the music is entirely appropriate to the meaning of the song

The tune for O come, O come Immanuel is called VENI EMMANUEL
This tune is thought to come from a 15^th century funeral chant that had belonged to French Franciscan nuns
So the tune is sad because it was used in funeral processions
The people who sing this are grieving, downtrodden and oppressed
They feel like they are struggling under a heavy yoke and God is absent
That’s why they are calling, yearning, for God’s presence
Their circumstances are far from ideal – they want heaven on earth
The rejoicing that is called for in the refrain is a rejoicing in faith and hope that God is coming.
It is the sober rejoicing of a prisoner who, despite still being locked up, knows they will be released soon

For many people Christmas is a season of mixed feelings – it is supposed to be a time of celebration but often it is a time when we feel our losses most keenly

We need a song like O come, O come Immanuel, that enables us to face our grief

Immanuel is one of the names for Jesus

We find the title ‘Immanuel’ in the prophecies of Isaiah and then Matthew ascribes this title to Jesus in his gospel.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” – which means ‘God with us’. [3]

Jesus is God with us

Have you ever notice how physical labour is so much easier when you are doing it with someone else, as opposed to doing it on your own
It’s not just that you get through the work quicker. There’s a kind of emotional support or buoyancy in working with someone else
Trimming the hedge, doing the housework, cutting a tree down, digging a trench, building a fence, whatever it is, it seems less onerous, less heavy when you have someone fit and skilled working with you
Some of my best memories as a kid were doing jobs on the weekend with my dad and grandad
Jesus is God with us. He comes alongside us (so we are not alone) and he helps us with our work of trusting and obeying God

Verse 1 reads: O come, O come Immanuel and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.

We walk into the future backwards

It’s by looking to the past that we find a way forward.
Verse one looks back to Israel’s exile to Babylon
In 586 BC Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians
Many Israelis were killed and the survivors were taken captive and sent into exile in a strange land
It was a time of mourning, a time of feeling like God was absent, a time of waiting for God to ransom them, to set them free
It wasn’t until 70 years later the people were allowed to return and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the temple

We may feel at odds with the world we live in at times

We may feel like exiles – that we don’t belong and are not free
We may identify with Israel in feeling alienated and alone
We may wonder what the future holds
But as we look back to Israel’s experience we see how God did not forget His people – God set His people free and some centuries later He sent His Son Jesus, our Immanuel. Jesus will return in glory one day

Verse 2 reads: O come, O come, Thou Lord of might, who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height in ancient times didst give the law in cloud and majesty and awe.

Thou is an old English word for You and Thy equates to Your – so it’s like saying, ‘O come You Lord of might, who to Your tribes on Sinai’s height…’

This verse of the hymn looks back to the time of Moses and the people Israel in the wilderness after they were set free from slavery in Egypt

God did many mighty things to inspire faith and awe…
He separated the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross,
He provided water out of a rock,
He gave manna and quail to feed the people in the wilderness,
He led the people by a pillar of cloud and fire
And, at Mount Sinai, God gave the Law, including the 10 commandments

The Law is like a set of clothes – it enabled Israel to stand before God

Without the Law we are naked before God
God gave the Israelites the Law so they could stand in right relationship with Him
When we are baptized we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ
Christ fulfills the Law – he gives us a new set of clothes so we can stand before God without shame

Jesus, whose name in Hebrew is Joshua, is Moses’ successor

Just as Moses was God’s representative leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, so too Jesus leads all who trust him out of the slavery of sin and death and into the promised land of God’s kingdom

There may be times when we feel like we are walking around in circles in the wilderness, like we are lost in our journey of faith, and we are not sure what comes next

We walk into the future backwards
We look at how God provided for His people in the wilderness of Sinai and we trust Him to lead us to the Promised Land, the kingdom of heaven

Verse 3 of the hymn says: O come, Thou rod of Jesse, free Thine own from Satan’s tyranny; from depths of hell Thy people save, and give them victory over the grave.

Rod of Jesse (or root of Jesse) is a reference to Jesus, the Messiah

Jesse was the father of king David
The term Rod of Jesse comes from Isaiah 11 where the prophets says in verses 1 & 10…

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. ²The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might…

¹⁰In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.

Then, right at the end of the Bible in Revelation 22, Jesus says to John…

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Off-spring of David…”

The point is, Jesus is a king in the line of David but he isn’t exactly like David – he’s better than David.

David did some good things for Israel but he wasn’t the most righteous king, as we heard about a couple of Sundays ago (with Bathsheba).
Jesus is righteous though.

Verse 3 of the hymn talks about Jesus freeing people from Satan’s tyranny.

In his earthly ministry Jesus demonstrated time and time again his power to release people from sickness and demon possession with just a word
Verse 3 also talks about Jesus saving people from the depths of hell and giving us victory over the grave
This has to do with resurrection to eternal life
The message of Jesus’ resurrection was front and centre of the preaching of the early apostles
People in the middle ages, when these words were written, had a vivid imagination when it came to hell
Jesus certainly preached about hell using colourful metaphors, but whether his imagery was meant to be taken literally is debatable.

One of my motivations in becoming a Christian (initially) was to avoid hell

If you accept Jesus as your saviour now, you get to go to heaven when you die – that was how it was pitched to me
While God is gracious enough to accept people on that basis, I have found it is not a particularly robust or adequate theology for this life
If your main reason for being a Christian is to avoid hell, then your life and relationship with God will be based on fear
God wants the basis of our relationship with Him to be one of faith expressing itself in love,[4] not fear expressing itself in resentment
If our only reason for being a Christian is to avoid hell, then we will end up resenting God. The aim is to love God. Perfect love drives out fear.

There may be times when we fear what awaits us in the next life

I can’t tell you anything about hell – I’ve not been there and I can’t see beyond the grave
We walk into the future backwards
We find hope for our future beyond death by looking back to Jesus
God raised Jesus from the dead – the first of many. Jesus is our hope
As we read in Romans 10: If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Verse 4 reads: O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by Thy justice here; disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Dayspring is a word we don’t hear very often these days – it means dawn of the morning, the first light of daybreak

Jesus is the dayspring – his advent (his coming) heralds the new day
In fact, Jesus is the light of the world – he is the dawn of a new age in human history where God’s kingdom comes to earth like a sunrise

We find a number references in the Scriptures to Jesus being the dayspring. For example, Isaiah 60, verse 1: Arise shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

Or Malachi 4, verse 2: But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings
And most famously, the words of Zechariah (the father of John Baptist) when his son was born,
You remember Zechariah couldn’t speak while Elizabeth was pregnant with John. But when John was born Zechariah’s tongue was loosed and this is what he said, from Luke 1, verse 78:
By the tender mercy of our God the dawn from on high will break upon us to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
These verses are talking about Jesus, the dayspring

Returning to verse 4 of the song: we notice that the human spirit is cheered up (given a lift) by the justice of Christ

The justice of Christ is medicine to our soul because it restores people, rather than destroying them.
The classic story of Jesus’ restorative justice is the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19
Jesus doesn’t approach Zacchaeus all guns blazing – he doesn’t shame or destroy Zacchaeus
Jesus shows honour to Zacchaeus by having dinner at his place
In doing this Jesus gives Zacchaeus the opportunity to redeem himself and be restored to his community
And Zacchaeus takes the opportunity with both hands saying:
I will give half my belongings to the poor and if I have cheated anyone I will pay them back four times as much.
This is the wise and gentle justice of Jesus – it’s a justice that benefits everyone

There may be times when we harbour guilt for the unfair way we have treated others. Or, conversely, there may be times when we harbour anger for the unfair way other people have treated us

We walk into the future backwards
When we look back at the way Jesus restored people, the way he made things right, we see the way forward in our relationships

The last verse of our hymn today reads: O come Thou Key of David, come, and open wide our heavenly home. The captives from their prison free, and conquer death’s deep misery.

Jesus came to set the captives free. At the same time Jesus is the door or the key by which we enter the kingdom of heaven

The expression ‘Key of David’ first appears in Isaiah 22:22 and is then picked up again in Revelation. Please turn with me to Revelation chapter 3, page 309 toward the back of your pew Bibles

In Revelation 2 & 3 Jesus gives a message to each of the seven churches of the first Century
Some of the churches get a bit of a serve – Jesus is not happy with them
But to the church in Philadelphia Jesus has a word of encouragement
From Revelation chapter 3, verse 7, we read…

⁷“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

“This is the message from the one who is holy and true. He has the key that belonged to David, and when he opens a door, no one can close it, and when he closes it, no one can open it. ⁸I know what you do; I know that you have a little power; you have followed my teaching and have been faithful to me. I have opened a door in front of you, which no one can close. ⁹Listen! As for that group that belongs to Satan, those liars who claim that they are Jews but are not, I will make them come and bow down at your feet. They will all know that I love you. ¹⁰Because you have kept my command to endure, I will also keep you safe from the time of trouble which is coming upon the world to test all the people on earth. ¹¹I am coming soon. Keep safe what you have, so that no one will rob you of your victory prize.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us

Whoever wrote this last verse of O come, O come Immanuel identified with the church in Philadelphia

This was a church that was not powerful, not successful, not popular, but it was faithful
There may be times when we feel powerless or like we are trapped – forced to live a life not of our choosing
When you feel trapped and powerless to do anything about it, where do you go next?
We walk into the future backwards
When we look back at the way Jesus encouraged the church of Philadelphia we find hope and a way forward
Jesus is the Key of David – he’s the one who unlocks the door and opens a way for us to walk in freedom – but we need to be faithful, we need to endure.

Do you feel like you are in exile, at odds with the world around you?

You are not alone. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us.

Do you feel like you are lost in the wilderness, naked before God?

You are found. Jesus is the Lord of might, able to provide for you.

Do you feel afraid – anxious of evil, anxious of death, anxious of hell?

Do not be afraid. Jesus is the rod of Jesse. He has conquered death. You belong to Christ.

Do you feel guilty for the injustice you have done? Or do you feel angry at the injustice done to you?

Peace is coming. Jesus is the Dayspring. The light of his justice makes all things new.

Do you feel trapped and powerless, weak and small?

You are blessed. Jesus is the Key of David. He comes to open the way for those who remain faithful to him.

Let’s stand and sing O come, O come Immanuel as we prepare for communion

Questions for discussion or reflection:

Listen to (or sing) the song, ‘O come, O come Immanuel’. What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does it evoke for you?)
What does the proverb, ‘we walk into the future backwards’ mean? How does this relate to our Christian faith?
How do you feel about Christmas?
What difference does it make knowing that Christ will return one day – that he will come to us?
Discuss / reflect on the meaning of the five names/images used for Jesus in this hymn – i.e. Immanuel, Lord of might, Rod of Jesse, Dayspring and Key of David. Which name / image speaks most clearly to your current situation?
Why did you become a Christian? (What is the basis of your relationship with God?) How might we move from a relationship with God based on ‘fear expressing itself in resentment’, to one based on ‘faith expressing itself in love’?
What are some characteristics of Jesus’ justice?
Which verse of the hymn do you identify with most? Verse 1, being in exile? Verse 2, being in the wilderness? Verse 3, being afraid? Verse 4, needing justice? Verse 5, feeling trapped?

[1] https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/o-come-o-come-emmanuel

[2] http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/220.html

[3] Matthew 1:22-23

[4] Galatians 5:6

O come, O come Immanuel

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Published by Tawa Baptist