Grafted In

IC XC
✙
NI KA

O Root of Jesse,
standing as a sign among the peoples;
before you kings will shut their mouths,
to you the nations will make their prayer:
Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

O Antiphon for 19 December

THE ROOT FROM JESSE’s stem is an image from Isaiah 11:1. Because of the way this image comes into the Church via the Latin Vulgate the “root of Jesse” is actually the Hebrew word for shoot or rod, חֹטֵר cHoter. Although there is an occasional reference in the Rabbinic commentaries linking the “shoot” to King Hezekiah, the majority tradition is for this to be a Messianic symbol.

Today what strikes me is that the Rod of Jesse (that is, the Royal Scepter of Israel) will make the kings of the nations shut their mouths and stand in silence before him.

It would be easy to write off Jewish-Christian relations as “It’s Complicated” and leave it at that. The conversation could start with the relationship between Jews and Greeks in the days of Ptolomy and Antiochus or we can go evn further back to the relationship between Israel and Babylon, or even further to Egypt before Joseph. The people of Israel have always been a tiny population compared to the rest of everyone. Although there have been Gentiles who were friendly towards the Hebrews (and later the Israelites) the Bible is filled with stories of Gentiles who were, at best, “friends with benefits”: they wanted something other than friendship. This continues even to this day when Evangelical Christians in America (mostly) are staunchly Pro-Israel because they believe they see there a first prophetic sign of the Apocalypse and the Second Coming. Rarely do they mention the next sign in their reading of the prophetic sequence: the conversion of all the Jews to Christianity. But that is not at all how the Scriptures – even today’s Latin verse – see things.

The Rod of Jesse – that is Jesus – is the one who will make the Gentiles

תהיה בשקט, שטם
Be quiet, dang it…

Even according to the Catholic Church’s historic teaching “precouncil”, the Jewish Law was inaugurated by God to show the entire world how to behave in his presence, to teach a moral code (exemplified in the Ten Commandments) and to prepare the world for relationship with him. By the time of the 2nd Temple there were some Jews actively engaged in what we would call evangelism: an active outreach to the Gentiles, winning converts, etc. This took many forms: can the gentiles become Jews? Can we let them pray with us? Can we eat with them? Need they follow the whole law? What’s the minimum? How does this work?

One way to view the followers of Jesus is as one of these evangelistic outreaches of the Jewish nations to the Gentiles. The Book of Acts (and the Letters of Paul) are an historical record of a successful Jewish outreach to the Gentiles and the continued conversation about what to do with these converts. In that light we would need to say that the Jesus-mission has been the most successful outreach. It’s also the one that got the most out of hand and began using the Rod of Jesse to beat up Jews. There are a number of historical steps to get to that stage though they are beyond the scope of my blogpost – which is preparing for Christmas. Yet, in a real sense, the Great O Antiphons of this series document this sense: the Jesus is the realization of the prophetic purpose of Israel: to bring the Gentiles into the place intended for them, the Court of the Gentiles in the Temple but then educate them and to take down the Wall that divides them so that all of the People of the World could worship the God of Israel who is the God of all.

He made the world (O Sapientia), and then appeared to Moses, giving the law (O Adonai) and now, he’s telling us Gentiles to be silent and know our place: the education has begun.

It’s not all triumphalism, though, for the education has been on-going and curiously revealed. Gentiles will pray to the Rod of Jesse, says this verse, but the seeds of those prayers, we will see, were laid before the Evangelists got there. As reads the first verses of one of my favorite hymns:

God is working this purpose out,
as year succeeds to year;
God is working this purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be:
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.

From utmost east to utmost west,
where human feet have trod,
by the mouth of many messengers
goes forth the voice of God:
“Give ear to me, ye continents,
ye isles, give ear to me,
that the earth may be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.”

I would fail in my point if I did not note that the hymn, itself, was more of a English Victorian Colonialist anthem: for “missions” in those days actually implied “becoming Loyal British Citizens” in the Empire. And so… it’s complicated. But if we just Shut Up. We might hear something important.