The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
December 5, 2010
Vol. 13 no. 48
Tree stumps are not impressive - except when you see that they persist in reproducing shoots and leaves after the tree had been cut down. Isaiah recognizes this as a sign of God’s recreation among humanity. We Christians don’t hesitate in calling it resurrection – but perhaps that’s a little too early in the Christian year to be using that language.
“A shoot from the stump of Jesse” is Isaiah’s image. He means a human descendant of Jessie, the father of David, Israel’s greatest king. Isaiah could have said it a little more directly, that someone from the family of David would be the Messiah. Yet it’s kind of boring to say it plain, so Isaiah resorts to imaginative images and striking poetry. Not only did he picture David’s family ‘tree’ as a cut-down tree, but he named the tree Jesse, not David. Jesse is hardly mentioned in the Bible, but poetry always hints at a reality that is a lot more than our plain prose describes.
Isaiah was talking about someone upon whom the Spirit of the Lord would rest, but I doubt he had anyone in mind right then. Isaiah is drawn into the Gospel fray numerous times the evangelists, especially Matthew, see the shoot of Jesse as none other than Jesus.
For quite some time churches and individual families have erected a “Jesse Tree” for Advent. As a tree there is nothing remarkable about it, except that people had adorned it with all sorts of ornaments and decorations that symbolize the Christian story. The Greek letters alpha and omega, the sign of the fish for the faith of the early Christians, angels and so on. Symbols always point to something greater, something still to come.
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan