I enjoy classical music but I admit that about the only part of the famed Handel's Messiah I know is the "Hallelujah Chorus."
To see the lyrics of the entire work, go here.
This musical work is most often heard around Christmas. However, there is a section of the work that focuses on the Passion.
Since this is the week when those (me included) who call Jesus the Lord and Savior reflect on the Passion, I thought I should finally take a closer look at the Scriptures Handel choose for the Messiah.
In Part II of the work, Handel musically takes us through the Passion of the Christ. Here follows track numbers 22-26.
John 1:29
Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world.
The Christian faith has its roots in the Jewish tradition. The Exodus story is recalled in the Passover when the Jews enslaved in Egypt put lamb's blood over the door as a mark so the angel of death would passover their home in the 10th plague against Egypt.
The Christian faith is centered on Jesus as the Passover Lamb. Jesus' death pays for our sin. And just as God took the enslaved Jews out of Egypt, Jesus rising from the dead in victory frees us from enslavement to sin and death and initiates the Kingdom of God in newness of spirit and life.
In the days ahead, I'll post more from the Scriptures Handel used. To end this post, here are the Scriptures where we gain a picture of the suffering that Jesus would endure on our behalf.
Isaiah 53:3-6
He is despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. . . [He] gave [His] back to the smiters, and [His] cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: [He] hid not [His] face from shame and spitting.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. . . . . . . He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him,
and with His stripes we are healed
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
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1 comment:
Great idea to post on this during Holy Week. I love Handel's Messiah - in fact I was thinking of possibly writing a book based around the theoloy of each of his scripture references. As the story goes, Handel's friend was a minister and gave him the list of 52 scriptural prophecies about the Messiah. Handel was reflecting on these and the whole thing supposedly came to him in one night. Each part focuses on one of those 52 scripture verses. In fact, now when I hear those scriputres read, I can't help think of the phrasing from Messiah :)
Here's another great resource on this excellent piece of music - http://www.geoffrobinson.net/handel_henry.html
It's a pairing of all the scripture in Handel's Messiah with Matthew Henry's commentary.
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