Out of the Darkness

Editor's Comment:

Have you ever experienced a complete reversal of all that you believed or sensed? The State of North Carolina’s motto is “Esse quam videri" – to be rather than to seem.  

Reality is not always what we see or perceive. 

The next segment of Handel’s Messiah addresses this odd dynamic. The last segment was about Jesus being mocked, forsaken, and forgotten by God (e.g., “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”).  

In this next segment, reality emerges, though shaded in the background. Death and grave cannot hold Jesus's broken body. The related biblical texts tell us God did not leave Jesus’s soul in the earth’s depths; that “the King of glory shall come in” because Jesus is “begotten” and “beloved” of the Father. 

Each of us is due judgment and separation from God because God is holy and just – and we are not. There is recompense for every person’s sin. But that is not the whole story; again, there’s more to it. 

GOD IS LOVE!

God’s beloved Son entered and endured human life, suffering, death, and judgment on our behalf. He takes our sins upon himself and gives his righteousness to those who will receive it: a Holy Exchange!  We are made righteous by faith.  He makes alive those who were dead, by dying for us. 

On this Palm Sunday, we recall Jesus’s “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem. By the end of the week, the fickle people will have turned against him and demanded his death. They will crown him with thorns and hang him on a cross. In one of history’s most profoundly ironic declarations,  Peter proclaimed to the Jews, “you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead…” (Acts 3:15). 

Yet, resurrection will triumph over crucifixion.  

ESSE QUAM VIDERI!

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Handel’s, The Messiah (Pts. 32-35): Out of Darkness

Video Presentations: 

32. Air (tenor) [2:40] – “But thou didst not leave his soul in hell; nor didst thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.” (Psalm 16, v.10)

33. Chorus [2:55] – “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.” (Psalm 24, vv.7–10)

34. Recitative (tenor) [1:53]– “Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?” (Hebrews 1, v.5) / …

35. Chorus – “Let all the angels of God worship him.” (Hebrews 1, v.6)