Enjoy ‘Messiah’ As Worship Experience
Each Christmas I like to suggest a “perfect Christmas gift.”
This year I suggest you give your loved ones “Messiah,” the greatest of all compositions, whose music and message have “probably done more to convince mankind that there is a God about us than all of the theological works ever written,” as one expert put it.
No other brief work so eloquently portrays the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus - and its meaning. Yet I do not suggest that you take your family to see “Messiah” as performed by your local symphony, as my wife and I did this week. We heard the National Symphony Orchestra. The music was glorious. But the spiritual content was missing. Why? It was difficult to understand more than isolated phrases of the great work. We could understand, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.” But the rest of that chorus was a blur. When I looked through my program for the words, it was almost impossible to find them amidst 78 pages of articles on other pieces of music being performed in December.
When I discovered them on page 19F, the words were tiny and impossible to read in the darkened concert hall. Though every word is from Scripture, the program had not a single biblical reference! During intermission I found three pages on Handel’s composing of the work, which did not report on his faith. In fact, after composing the “Hallelujah Chorus,” he told a servant, “I think I did see all heaven before me, and the great God himself.”
My program even erroneously stated the piece is “based on the New Testament.” Actually, 38 of the 61 selections are from the Old Testament.
Most of the words on the life and death of Jesus do not come from the Gospels. Quiz yourself. Can you identify the book of the Bible for these texts and write them down?
1. “For unto us a child is born, a son is given…”
2. “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped …”
3. “He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
4. “Surely, he hath bourne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”
5. “He trusted in God that he would deliver him; let him deliver him…”
6. “Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto his sorrow.”
7. “I know that my Redeemer liveth …”
The answers: 1. Isaiah 9:6; 2. Isaiah 35:5. 3. Isaiah 53:3. 4. Isaiah 53:4. 5. Psalm 22:8. 7. 6. Lamentations 1:12. 7. Job 19:25.
What’s remarkable is how much of the story was written hundreds of years in advance by prophets. Even the significance of Jesus’ life for us has roots in the Hebrew Bible. What is the source of this: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” They are from Hosea 13:14 and are a moving duet by the alto and tenor.
We have attended “Messiah” at the National Cathedral, where we were given a readable libretto. But it lacked all Scriptural references. The next year I returned with a Bible with a concordance, so I could look up the Biblical sources. But why should a listener have to work so hard? Attending “Messiah ”should be an opportunity for worship.
What can be done? I have three ideas.
First, send this column with a personal note to your symphony, asking that the text of “Messiah” be printed in readable form with Scriptural references and that house lights be left partly on for easy reading. That’s how it’s done by the Christian Performing Arts Fellowship in Constitution Hall, directed by Patrick Kavanaugh.
Second, Kavanaugh suggests encouraging your own church to perform the whole “Messiah.” He says, “This great work has been captured by the world. If you go to the National Symphony, it’s a fund-raising thing. We need to recapture it for the Lord.” The entire libretto for two hours of singing sells for less than $10. Most churches can afford it. And it can be reused each year.
Third, you can give the entire performance on two CDs, complete with text and all Scriptural references, as a present for as little as $18. It’s the perfect Christmas gift.