That feeling you get as you stand taking in the staggering height of the Cliffs of Moher, seeing the waves pound ferociously at their feet. The spine-tingling sound of a skilled musician reveling in that cello concerto. A clear day across the breath-taking Mourne mountains or the crisp, clean whiteness of newly fallen snow. Awe.

This is a story about an Australian school teacher, a Co Down farmer, a long boat journey to Ethiopia, language study, three children, schools, clinics, chickens, chess sets, two famines, a revolution, a civil war and a spider plant. Sort of in that order.

Did you know we are in the grip of another pandemic? An anxiety pandemic. Anxiety is part of our lives at the best of times. But the Coronavirus has created a perfect storm of worry. Worries about loneliness, failure, change, monotony, anxiety about work, health, finances and the future can overwhelm us. Anxious thoughts fill our minds. “What if this happens?” “What if this doesn’t happen?” Are you worried you read this?

In this fourth article attention is drawn to what happened after Messiah’s suffering and death. The fact of his ‘passion’ is captured in the ‘Messiah’ with words from Isaiah 53:8 “… he was cut off out of the land of the living … .”

The Bible has one central person in focus – the Messiah. After Adam and Eve sinned their only hope lay in the ‘seed of the woman’ promised in Genesis 3:15. God affirmed that this ‘seed’ would crush Satan and redeem his people through suffering and death. That seed is the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One.

George Frideric Handel is given all the accolades for the oratorio, ‘Messiah’.  He is indeed worthy of the highest praise for this musical masterpiece, a masterpiece as popular today as when it was first performed in Dublin in April 1742.  Handel, however, was only responsible for the musical score.  It was Charles Jennens who was the mastermind behind the arrangement of the Scripture texts.  These are arranged to show how the Old Testament is perfectly fulfilled in the New.  In a wonderful way these texts depict the person and work of Christ.  This article will concentrate on the Birth of the Messiah.

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.