This past year I read Scot McKnight's The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited and the N. T. Wright's How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels. Both scholars have reminded us once again how disconnected we have become from the world of Jesus and the early church. For us, Christianity goes from creation straight to Jesus’s birth, then to the crucifixion and resurrection, after which we get the "real" theology of Paul, talking about individual sin and salvation. The Hebrew Testament is seen as peripheral background information and Jesus's life and ministry are compressed into moralistic teachings about personal piety and personal salvation. The biblical witness is so much bigger than this.
To be honest, I'm not a big fan of Christmas music. I don’t care for many of the hymns. But one carol that has stuck with me over the years is O Come Emmanuel. It is believed that the lyrics may date back to at least the 8th Century, well before the Reformation and the framing of the gospel that came from with those events. Of all the hymns, it seems to me that this one comes closest to capturing the sentiments that people in Jesus's day must have felt.
O Come Emmanuel
O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
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
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
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 did'st give the Law, In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
