Handel’s “Messiah”

“Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry to her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1-2 KJV)

We have just celebrated Thanksgiving Day, and already we’ve had enough of the secular seasonal songs once creative, no longer so. We pretend we enjoy the ancient carols from the old John Hancock Insurance Company booklet; however, there is one classic that seems never to grow outdated—Handel’s Messiah. Even us children and grandchildren of immigrants whose Nativity celebration did not include that classic honor it and recognize something about its majesty at this time of the year. Somehow, while other songs of the season wear on us, Messiah remains relevant.

We hear a call for comfort, which begins the second Isaiah, chapter 40, even though it may not have the same significance for us as it did for those who heard the great prophet’s message. To hear the word “comfort” repeated is to emphasize the urgency of the proclamation. Is it the people who needed to hear that the Lord Almighty was finally ready to restore the relationship that had been broken between the Lord and Israel, the precious covenant agreed upon by the Creator and His chosen ones, or could it even have been the Lord Himself who was so eager for a new beginning that He is waiting impatiently for someone to cry out to Jerusalem with a word of hope? It’s now a time that forgiveness must end hostility, the enmity between the divine Lord and the people of Jerusalem be completed, the sins that divided the two parties be forgiven. It announces a new era dawning, the time for a fresh beginning.

What is the prophet offering to his people but the presence of the Lord once again? They knew from the prophet Hosea what an abomination it is for the Lord to choose Israel as a virgin bride only to have her offer herself to any and every man who passes by, as Hosea demonstrated by marrying a prostitute at the order of the Lord. The Israelites realized that they were like sheep without a shepherd, a desert without water, and prisoners without hope of release. Their blessing is that they realized their plight and were ready to welcome with great joy the One sent by the Lord to free and deliver them from sin.

What does it mean for us today, other than a charming oratorio, a recollection of things past; especially if we have an Anglo-Saxon heritage and can better appreciate the setting and tradition. But can we have the same sense of deliverance as the Israelis who listened to the words of Isaiah that came like a salve of soothing unguent for their sorrows? What the prophet spoke to them is basically what all the worthwhile prophets told them time and time again: God has a plan, and it is being carried out in you, unworthy as you are to bring it into fruition. Nothing that has happened to us should surprise us, for the Lord was consistent in the bargain He struck with our ancestors—you are entrusted with a special mission through history, and that is to gather all the nations under the rule of one unique deity, the God who has gifted you as the agents of His plan for the ultimate unity of all humanity. In chapter 45:23 of Isaiah, the Lord spells out His plan: “To Me every knee shall bow.” The tribes of Israel were scattered among the nations for much of their existence not to punish them but so that they would act as living examples of what the Lord required of them and all mankind. Could it be that the Orthodox Christian Diaspora of the last century was intended to achieve much the same?