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The Past: Incarnation

Old Testament stories tell of God’s promise to be with us and of God’s marvelous activity that ushers in salvation for the whole world. Allusions to the incarnational coming of God swim throughout the Old Testament and are the source for a path of twelve messianic markings, a series of lessons and carols, and the lineage of God incarnate.

You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fulness of joy

—Psalm 16:11

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Messianic Markings

Tree of Life. Genesis begins at the center of the garden, where we encounter the Tree of Life or Paradise tree (Genesis 2:9). It is a symbol of God’s life-giving presence and of the promise of immortality when we walk in God’s presence. Though we lost our right to share in the fruits of the Tree of Life, our yoke of suffering and death is broken on a tree by Emmanuel, who leads us into eternal life (Revelation 2:7).

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The Dove. A symbol of the Spirit of God, the dove returns to Noah bearing an olive branch to herald God’s reconciliation and ever-abiding peace with us (Genesis 8).

Rainbow. God sets the bow in the clouds as a visible sign of the covenant between the Creator and creation. It is a sign of God’s promise never again to curse the ground (Genesis 9).

Bread and Wine. Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, whose name means, “my king is justice,” offers bread and wine as a covenantal meal, blessing the “God Most High, maker of heaven and earth,” deliverer from our enemies (Genesis 14:17-20). From its beginning, the biblical story gives a profound sense of salvation history and of God’s unremitting plans. The covenant promises are the basis of our relationship with God: God reveals God’s presence so that we may know God and who we are—God’s beloved.

Seed of Abraham. In spite of humanity’s consistent rebellion, God reveals God’s Self so that we may know God as intimately as children know their mother and father. The seed of Abraham (Genesis 15) is the root of the sprout from which salvation will flower at the ripening of time, when “all the nations of the earth [shall] gain blessing” (Genesis 22:18).

Three Visitors to Abraham and Sarah. God visits Abraham and Sarah to speak to them about the birth of a son (Genesis 18:1–15) whose offspring will be as “numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore” (Genesis 22:17).

Jacob’s Ladder. Like the Tree and rainbow, Jacob’s Ladder is a symbolic “bridge” linking God with humanity. Angels descend and ascend a ladder between heaven and earth, bearing the message from God that Israel will be the harbinger of salvation to all humankind. The ladder leads to the gate of heaven, where God’s covenant of dynastic blessing is renewed with Jacob, descendant of Abraham and Sarah (Isaac and Rebekah’s son) (Genesis 28).

Burning Bush. When Moses encounters God in the burning bush (Exodus 3), he is empowered to lead the enslaved Israelites to freedom through the waters of the Red Sea (Exodus 14). Moses recognized in the fiery bush God-with-us, disclosing God’s regenerative light and victorious might against evil (see December 18, O Adonai).

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Freedom. Matzah, the unleavened bread of slaves, is the bread the Jews made in haste for sustenance during their Exodus from slavery to freedom (Exodus 12). Matzah conveys the idea that freedom involves internal simplicity, not outward circumstances of status. The matzah, plain and flat, is not puffed up with pride and desires.

The Crown of David. The crown symbolizes divine rule and is the focus of messianic hope. An anointed shepherd (2 Samuel 5) proves to be Israel’s greatest king, rising from humble status.

Ark of the Covenant. Solomon, David’s son, built the first Temple c. 960 B.C.E. to house the Ark of the Covenant, a symbol of God’s presence. Jerusalem, the site of the Temple and God’s dwelling place, becomes the center of the world (1 Kings 8).

Jonah and the Fish. The short book of Jonah admonishes against consistent refusal to trust God’s presence and willful avoidance of God’s call. God’s redemptive love requires repentance and cooperation: forsake idolatry, give thanks to God, and practice compassion and justice toward all. Again and again we fail, yet God’s promise is fulfilled. Jonah and the fish symbolize the full salvation accomplished by Jesus the Christ.

Advent Lessons and Carols

In many churches, the First Sunday of Advent is observed with an Advent festival of lessons and carols, which usually takes place in the evening during a service of light. A typical service consists of a bidding prayer followed by nine Old Testament readings proclaimed alternately with hymns, canticles and anthems specific to Advent. Often this service marks the first lighting of the Advent wreath.

Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away.

—Jeremiah 31:10

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The lessons recount our creaturely status (Genesis 2:4-9, 15-25); our disobedience (Genesis 3:1-22), including the “proto-gospel” (v. 15), interpreted by many as the first hint that God will come and save our fallen race; God’s response of comfort and promise of redemption (Isaiah 40:1-11, Jeremiah 31:31-34); our longing for God’s presence (Isaiah 64:1-9); God’s call to the prophet Isaiah (6:1-11); the prophetic revelation that God will come and save us (Isaiah 7:10-15, 11:1-9, 35:1-10; Baruch 4:36-5:9; Micah 5:2-4); and our call to rejoice and sing because God promises a new heaven and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17-25, Zephaniah 3:14-18).

Hymns of longing and anticipation, such as “Sleepers, Wake!” and “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus,” echo the focus of the readings. Particularly appropriate is the Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” drawn from the Great ‘O’ antiphons of Advent (December 17-23).

The Jesse Tree

In Isaiah, the Messiah’s family tree is identified: the root of Jesse (Jesse was David’s father). The house of David will produce an ideal king who will inaugurate the reign of peace, justice and universal knowledge of God.

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

—Isaiah 11:1–2

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In art, a reclining Jesse dreams of a genealogical tree that grows out of his loins with “leafs” in the tree that name the ancestors of Jesus. In homes and churches, a barren branch or bare evergreen is progressively laden with “leaves” of messianic lineage until the Jesse tree blooms on Christmas Day with the arrival of Jesus. The first “leaf” on the tree, Adam and Eve, represents the common origins of the whole human family. The Garden of Eden symbolizes the familial relationship of humanity and our rebelliousness that causes estrangement from God and one another.

The New Testament opens with Matthew’s genealogy, the model Jesse tree: “An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Verse 2 begins: “Abraham who was the father of Isaac” so that the story of Israel begets the story of Jesus Christ.⁵ The lineage continues with Jacob, who generates the twelve tribes of Israel (two moons with twelve stars). Ruth (barley), Jesse’s grandmother, is one of five women cited, all of whom have questionable marital status. She models that faithful perseverance, not birthright or status, is vital. Out of Jesse’s humble home in Bethlehem, the young shepherd boy, David, is anointed king and his son Solomon exemplifies wisdom. After Hezekiah, the last of the faithful kings before the dispersion, the house of David falls into oblivion until Joseph agrees to wed Mary, the mother of God, and raise God’s Son as his own. The son of Joseph is the long-awaited eternal king, the flower of Jesse’s tree.

The Future: Parousia

The New Testament foretells the victorious return of Christ. The “day of the Son of Man” (Luke 17:24)⁶ is Jesus’ glorious Parousia. At a time indefinite, the “day of the Lord” comes to complete the work of salvation. Christ-with-us arrives in completion and eliminates all evil. It is the “day of judgment,” when our behavior is assessed and we are called to account, finally and fully. On that day, Love-never-ending reveals who we are.

A symbol of the Last Judgment depicts Christ enthroned in majesty, surrounded by the four winged creatures of Ezekiel 1:10 and Revelation 4:6–7. Starting at Christ’s right shoulder and moving counterclockwise, the creatures are a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle, symbolizing the four evangelists. As the winged man, Matthew, who opens with the genealogy of Jesus (Jesse tree above), stresses the Incarnation and the imminent kingdom. The winged lion represents Mark, whose gospel opens with the urgency of a lion’s roar—“Prepare the way of the Lord!”—and closes with the Resurrection, also symbolized by a lion. The sacrificial ox present at the holy birth of Jesus, fully human and fully divine, is Luke’s symbol, stressing the atoning death of Christ to save all humankind. John, the eagle, soars to the loftiest heights to affirm that Jesus is the incarnate Word of God (1:14).

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

—I John 3:2

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The Present: Daily Visitation

Amos, a shepherd and prophet of social justice, proclaims God’s hope for justice.

Our vocation is to watch for Jesus who is Lord, here and now. Love God by practicing justice and kindness daily. Our judgment hinges upon recognizing Christ, present in all people, especially the anawim⁷:

Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:37–40

But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.

—Amos 5:24

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Christ promises to be with us always, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). The entire corpus of the New Testament letters (Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John) is written to believers to emphasize the active lordship of Jesus Christ. The letters bid us to remember the original message of Jesus’ victory over death, to realize Christ present within the church. Like the apostles on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13–35), don’t our hearts burn with the love of God when they are opened by Christ’s presence?

Throughout scripture we are taught to watch for God-with-us, to repent for our disobedience and to rejoice in Christ’s daily presence. Then we will be prepared to welcome the one who came humbly in the flesh and will come again in glory at the Last Day.