O Root of Jesse, you stand as a sign for the peoples; before you kings shall keep silence and to you all nations shall have recourse. Come, save us, and do not delay.
O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem Gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.
Isaiah 52:13, 15; 53:2: "See, my servant shall prosper...So shall he startle many nations, because of him kings shall stand speechless. ...He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot".
Isaiah prophesied a restoration of David's throne - a new branch budding out of the old root. Christ is the root of Jesse in a two-fold sense: he is the descendant of David, who was the youngest son of Jesse, and he inherited the royal throne. The angel foretold to Mary, "The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his reign will be without end" (Luke 1:32-33).
Our hearts more and more urgently cry out for God's reign to extend over all humanity: "Come, save us, and do not delay".
Among all the grand titles we ascribe to Jesus, perhaps 'root of Jesse' is the least remarkable. This title, however, serves to underline the humanness of Jesus; he is born as one of many descendants in a history of generations of human beings. As such, 'root of Jesse' forms part of that mysterious reality which is also very divine, with God as his source of generation. But more than that, this human Jesus is a clear descendant of Judaism, a Judaism which was so instrumental in forming the person and the psychology we can discern in the Gospels. Indeed, Jesus was a practising Jew, though not always in the ways of established Jewish religious groups, and left the call to repentance for the Gentiles to others; he concentrated on his own people. But even more, Jesse is that forefather who is linked to David. Both by birth and by prophecy, Jesus is the fruit of Jesse and David and is known in his public life as 'son of David'. Particularly Luke goes to great lengths to show his readers that Jesus is, because of his descent from Jesse and David, worthy of what was promised in prophecy for a future descendant of David. Jesus was not 'the Anointed One' solely because of his characteristics of power, and wisdom and holiness; he was Messiah because he came from the house of one to whom God had promised an offspring who would rule forever on the throne of his forefather. 'Root of Jesse', then, suggests both the humanity of Jesus and his Jewishness and the reality that just as Jesus can be said to be generated by the Father, so we can say that Jesus, by his conception and birth, belonged to that family to whom was promised rule over Israel forever.
- America Magazine
Many people in society today think Matthew 1:1-17 is an “anti-climatic” beginning to the New Testament. We have a hard time understanding the importance of this genealogy, much less comprehending what Matthew is saying theologically about Jesus. By looking at this passage we see that Jesus’ family lineage is full of all types of people. We find adulterers, prostitutes, and Gentiles mixed in with some of the heroes of the faith in Jesus’ genealogy. Gail Godwin says, “Matthew’s genealogy is showing us how the story of Jesus Christ contained—and would continue to contain—the flawed and inflicted and insulted, the cunning and the weak-willed and the misunderstood. His is an equal opportunity ministry for crooks and saints.”
Reflections from prior years on the O Antiphons:
- iBenedictines - O Radix Jesse and Our Need of Roots 2016
- Salt + Light - O Radix Jesse
- Dating God - O Root of Jesse: Getting out of God’s Way
- Blue Eyed Ennis - O Root of Jesse
- Jesus as the Root/Shoot/Branch of Jesse
- Thinking Faith - O Radix Jesse
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