O Root of Jesse, Who Stands as an Ensign of the People

O Root of Jesse, who stands as an ensign of the people,
Before whom kings their mouths silent make,
Whom the nations shall supplicate—
Come to deliver us, do not tarry now.

Families are critical part of who people are. We mark who we are and where we come from by our families. We have security in stable families and we find love, compassion, and nurture among the people who are so close to us, they share a common bloodline, a common biological make-up, a common root as it were.

In Christ, God enters the human story—as one like us in all respects. God becomes a human being and lives among us as a real and genuine human being. Jesus has a family—a family that stretches back in the deepest reaches of history. A family made up of great people of God who themselves were nonetheless broken people, needing of God’s deliverance and transformative newness in their lives.


God’s entry into our story is more than just a way of standing in solidarity with us in all the dreck of our lives. God’s entry into our story offers us a way to something new, a means to become part of a bigger story, a different family, a new Tree of Life with a deep, sustaining root. God promises us we are part of the bigger picture, the story that roots itself deeply into the very fabric of time, into Christ Jesus, the very identity of God in. Because of Christ, God grafts us into the family of God and makes us children of a higher purpose—children who by their lives are called to reflect the glory of their Father, their Father who created us and all things for the pure delight of it.

For us, the testament of this promise is Jesus Christ, who stands as a witness to the world of God’s abiding and dogged insistence to deliver us from the brokenness of our current reality. What's more, God promises to bring us into a life of fullness and fruitfulness as members of a family, a family whose root is Christ. God lovingly incorporates us, making us children and heirs to the promise that Christ has embodied for us in life and in death.

O Root of Jesse, who stands as an ensign of the people,
Before whom kings their mouths silent make,
Whom the nations shall supplicate—
Come to deliver us, do not tarry now.

Read:
Luke 3:23-38
Romans 11

-DS