Handel’s Messiah Pt.3
The oratorio, ‘Messiah’, is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on Old Testament prophesies concerning Messiah’s coming as well as facts surrounding his birth. The second part concentrates on texts which describe the suffering and death of the Messiah – his Passion. The third part draws our attention to the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of believers.
This article introduces the second part. Through the texts identified the discerning listener can easily glean the purpose of Messiah’s suffering. It was not because of sin he had committed, because Jesus was “without blemish or spot”, but because of the sins of his people. That will become crystal clear as some of these texts are considered.
The arresting text from John chapter 1 opens this section. It is the voice of John the Baptist. John has been preaching to vast congregations beside the Jordan River making it known that the coming of Messiah was imminent.
Suddenly one clear spring day the figure of a man appeared on the horizon. As he approached John proclaimed to his disciples, “Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) What a declaration. What an announcement. What a perfect description of Messiah and his mission. Of this text J C Ryle has written:
“All the stars in heaven are bright and beautiful, and yet one star exceedeth another star in glory. So also all texts of Scripture are inspired and profitable, and yet some texts are richer than others. Of such texts the verse before us is pre-eminently one. Never was there a fuller testimony borne to Christ upon earth, than that which is here borne by John the Baptist”.
“Behold” was used by John to arrest the attention of his disciples. He then gave Messiah the very descriptive title, “the Lamb of God”. What a most appropriate title! Lambs had figured prominently in the minds and worship of the Jews for centuries. When Abraham and Isaac were ascending Mount Moriah to offer a sacrifice the young lad suddenly said to his father, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (Genesis 22:7) His father’s classic reply was monumental in its significance and prophetic in its content – “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son”. (Genesis 22:8)
Generations later in the land of Egypt judgement was about to fall on all the first born males of the entire community. How would the first born sons of the Israelites be saved? God made provision. Each family was told to select a lamb, a male, one year old, without blemish or spot and kill it. The blood of this lamb was to be sprinkled on the door posts and lintels of all their houses. God had said to them, “… when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt”. (Exodus 12:13) In faith that blood was sprinkled on each Israelite house and every first born son was spared, saved by the blood, because the ‘angel of death’ passed over those homes.
The memory of this deliverance was kept alive in Israel by the observance of the annual Passover feast, at which each family killed a lamb. That lamb pointed back to the time of the exodus but it also pointed forward to the coming Messiah, whose sacrifice would being salvation.
John prepared the way for Messiah and when he had almost fulfilled his calling, he saw Jesus appearing over the hill leading him to make this clarion call:
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
The long awaited Lamb had come. He was the true Lamb anticipated by Abraham. He was the sacrificial Lamb of which all the Passover lambs had been a type as the apostle Paul made clear to the Corinthian believers.
“… Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7)
He is the Lamb who would, as Isaiah prophesied, “be led to the slaughter”. (Isaiah 53:7) But why? For what purpose? John’s declaration informs us – “Jesus is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” How would that be accomplished?
This question can be answered by thinking about sin and its consequences. “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23) Sin leads to death, both physical and spiritual. This death is experienced in Hell, the place of eternal punishment where terrors and torments will be experienced for ever.
Can anyone be saved from this coming wrath? By one’s own efforts, absolutely no one. Paul in Romans 3:20 is quite emphatic, as is all of Scripture, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, …” See also Isaiah 64:6; Galatians 2:16.
The only way to be saved is by someone coming to take the place of sinners and bearing the punishment due for sin. That someone is the Messiah, who came to earth to take away the sin of the world, to bear the punishment due his people. Jesus did that on the cross. There he became their substitute. On the cross at Calvary, “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)
No one else but the holy Son of God could take upon himself the accumulation of his people’s offenses. No one else but Jesus could take on himself the burden of debt incurred by that vast number of people he came to save. (Revelation 7:9) No one else but Immanuel could drink the cup of God’s wrath due the elect, and drink it all, down to the bitter dregs. Those who reject Jesus die with the guilt of sin still against their spiritual account. They will have to drink the cup of God’s wrath and drink it in its entirety. (Psalm 75:8) How absolutely terrible.
If God “did not spare his own son but gave him up” to all the torments of Golgotha, be sure of this, he will not spare any who die having completely ignored or purposefully rejected this marvellous provision. Reader, he will not spare you, unless you repent and believe in Jesus and follow him as your Redeemer and your King.
Being present when great choirs are singing the words of this announcement with clarity and meaning is extremely moving. The challenge communicated is for the believer to behold the Lamb of God afresh; to behold Jesus in all his glorious attributes, especially in his sacrificial love, sacrificial love which led him to embark on his redemptive mission that led him to give his life as a ransom for many.
Sadly, the reaction of many listening to the ‘Messiah’ or others who have never heard the oratorio, is to reject the Lamb of God. This is picked up in the words that follow John’s declaration: “He was despised and rejected by men”. (Isaiah 53:3a) The moment in history that epitomised this occurred in the forecourt of Pilate’s residence, when the crowds vociferously cried out: “Away with him, away with him, crucify him”. (John 19:15)
The less familiar words of Isaiah 50:6 follow this declaration in the oratorio showing that Jesus willingly subjected himself to the verbal and physical abuse meted out to him by his enemies. “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” What ignominy and shame willingly accepted by the Lord of Glory for his chosen ones!
The oratorio then graphically captures the prophetic words of Psalm 22 and accurately attributes them as coming from the lips of Jesus. “All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”. (Psalm 22:7, 8) These words were fulfilled in detail. (Matthew 27:39-43) They stir the emotions of the attentive and thoughtful listener to the oratorio and cause them to reflect on what Christ had to endure from the sceptical onlookers at Golgotha. What was more difficult for the Saviour to endure was the wrath of the Father being poured out upon his righteous soul. This is captured in the prophetic words of Psalm 69:20 identified and used at this appropriate point in the oratorio. “Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none.” (Psalm 69:20) These words are followed by the very moving and heartrending words of Lamentations 1:12 “… Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,”
There was never any ‘sorrow’ like that endured by the Lamb of God. The words that come next in the oratorio clearly demonstrate why Christ’s sorrow (his suffering) was immense. “… he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?” (Isaiah 53:8) This conveys the cost of our salvation. To be stricken for some dreadful crime is understandable, but to be stricken as the holy, righteous, blameless Son of God is a mystery. But only a mystery to those who aren’t aware of the transaction that occurred at the cross. “stricken for the transgression of my people”. That explains the mystery. That joins the dots as does an earlier verse picked up by Jennings in his musical composition. “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
This is ‘substitutionary atonement’. We, who believe on Jesus, deserved every single wound and every solitary stripe. We deserved eternal punishment in Hell, but our Saviour took it and endured it all for us. The Lamb of God made atonement. He made the sacrifice to pay the debt we own. How should you react to that? Love Jesus, who first loved you. Thank God every day for his inexpressible gift!
