Advent 4—O Antiphons
One of the best loved Advent hymns is O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Like so many good hymns, it has deep biblical, theological images in it. This hymn is a hymn rich biblical imagery drawn from the Messianic hopes of the OT to proclaim the coming Savior as the fulfillment not only of OT hopes but ours as well. The great beauty of Advent is that it places us NT Christians in the shoes of the OT faithful who were waiting thousands of years for the Savior to come. As we are placed in the shoes of the OT faithful, we then all the more sense our longing for Jesus to come again—the second time, this time in glory and majesty and as Judge. Our longing for Jesus’ return is brought out in the hymn with the twice repeated “O Come” that begins each stanza.
This favorite hymn finds its beginnings in a collection of refrains that were written before the 9th century. These refrains were known as the Great O Antiphons. They were chanted as the antiphons before and after the Magnificat canticle [the Song of Mary] that was sung as part of Vespers. Each day from 17-23 December a different one was used giving a different image or foreshadow of the coming Savior. These images/ foreshadows are drawn from the prophecies of St. Isaiah.
The antiphon appointed for today is “O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal kingdom: come and free the prisoners of darkness.” It does us well today, this final Sunday in Advent, to reflect on this beautiful OT image of Jesus to help us prepare our hearts for the celebration of His coming as the Baby born of the virgin in Bethlehem and to instill in us a more fervent longing for His return on the Last Day. As we do so, we long for His coming to us now in word and Sacrament to strengthen and preserve us in our wait.
Today our prayer is for Jesus, the Key of David, to open to us the gates of our heavenly home and to rescue us and shut hell to us. Notice that image of Jesus as a “Key”. After all, what does a key do? –It opens/ unlocks and it locks. That’s exactly what Jesus has done –He opened/ unlocked the kingdom of heaven to all believers and shuts hell to us. But where does this image of Jesus as a Key, “the Key of David” come from? It comes from our text: Then it shall be in that day, that I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah; I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your belt; I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; so he shall open, and no one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open. What the Lord is describing through the prophet is a shake-up in the royal palace. So what does all that have to do with Jesus? Here at the time of St. Isaiah, there was a man in the royal household by the name of Shebna. He was holding the position of treasurer or steward over the royal household. Some say he was second only to the king. But it seems this Shebna was a proud man whose only interest was in glorifying himself. So what does the Lord here say to Shebna? –that He will depose him and give his position to a faithful man named Eliakim. The Lord would divest Shebna of all the signs of office and give them to Eliakim: I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your belt; I will commit your responsibility into his hand. Eliakim would be what Shebna is not: He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; he would be faithful and like a father, full of tenderness and love, to the whole kingdom. And then, the key verse about Eliakim: The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; so he shall open, and no one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open. To have the key of the house of David means that Eliakim has control over all the material blessings of the kingdom and the authority to bestow or withhold them.
In all likelihood this event—or palace intrigue—would have been relegated to a minor/ insignificant part of OT history; in no way would we see in Eliakim a foreshadowing of Jesus except for one thing—Jesus’ own words! Jesus tells us in Revelation [3.7]: These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.” Notice how Jesus uses and applies these words to Himself! So now this seemingly insignificant event becomes significant. Like Eliakim had control over the kingdom’s material blessings and could give or withhold them, so also Jesus has the keys to all the heavenly treasures and the power to grant them or not according to His will. And so, using our Lord’s own words, the Church uses this event to point us to Jesus and His saving work: “O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal kingdom: come and free the prisoners of darkness.” And as we pray these words, we yearn all the more for Jesus to come—again—and to us.
Our fervent prayer is that Jesus would open wide to us/ unlock the gates of heaven/ of our heavenly home. And our prayer is that He would come and rescue us—the prisoners who are in darkness and the shadow of death. What is this image of? It is a picture of our inability to save ourselves; a picture of our sin and our sinful condition. The simple fact is that we by ourselves, by our own efforts, or own strivings, by our own holiness do not and cannot enter heaven. The doors to heaven would still be locked to us. We could knock and pound all we want but they would still be closed to us. That’s what our sin has done. Our sin separates us from God. In fact, sin turns us toward ourselves and away from God so that we want to serve self/ do our own will and not the will of God. And yet, it is interesting—even after living a life of sin and serving self, so many people want to gain heaven/ they want to enter heaven because they think that they are good enough. Most people still believe in some vague notion of a heaven and hope for something good after this life. But the simple fact is that we all need Jesus to open heaven to us. As we pray today “O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal kingdom: come and free the prisoners of darkness”, let it drive us to examine our own hearts and lives to see/ recognize and sorrow over our sins. Let it drive us to see our own sinful condition—that we are prisoners of darkness, that we live in the shadow of death. The simple fact is that we are conceived and born in sin and would continue on in sin, on that path to misery—ultimately leading to an eternity in hell and all along the way that path of misery is not pleasant but is filled with sin and guilt and emptiness. Left to ourselves we would remain the prisoners of darkness—not knowing the way out of it—with only death and hell awaiting us. But when we live a life of confession—always examining heart and life in the light of God’s holy law, recognizing our sin and that we cannot gain heaven by our own works—then how fervently we long for and pray for Jesus, the Key of David who opens wide our heavenly home! How we long to hear the Christmas Gospel [Lk. 2.11]: There is born for you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord!
That’s the other thing we see in our text. Here in the text faithful Eliakim is a man who foreshadows Jesus. How does the Lord begin our text? Then it shall be in that day, that I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah. He calls Eliakim My servant. It is a very high honor to be called the Lord’s servant, to serve Him. That’s one way Eliakim pointed forward to Jesus. Eliakim served the Lord but Jesus is the Servant par excellence. Jesus perfectly served the Lord and He perfectly served us! That’s the whole reason for His coming to this world—to serve us by being our Savior. Jesus tells us [Mt 20.28] that He did not come to be served but to give His life as a ransom for many. We heard in today’s Gospel of the greatness of Jesus as to who He really is—the very God Himself. The angel told the Blessed Virgin about her son: He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. Because why? –He is! And even though He is true God, the Son of the Most High, He is also true man, a descendant of David: The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He is true man but also true God who will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will never end, because He is eternal and His kingdom, the Church, will last into all eternity!
Jesus is the Lord’s servant because He came and perfectly did the Lord’s will—He lived a life without sin for us. Jesus perfectly did everything God expects and demands of us but that we, because of sin do not and cannot do. Jesus is our righteousness! Because Jesus is true God, He could not sin. And then Jesus took all our sins and went to the cross and died for them. Because Jesus is also true man, He could die. But He rose again from the dead—Victor over sin, death, devil and hell. And He ascended into heaven, and as with a key, He opened the Kingdom of heaven to all believers! “O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal kingdom!
Jesus has and is the Key to the Kingdom of heaven. Only through Him opening the door/ unlocking the lock can we enter heaven. Heaven/ salvation is only in and through Jesus. As we recognize and sorrow over our sins, we then run to Jesus seeking His forgiveness; we then run to Him to open heaven to us, that we by our sin have shut. And as He opens heaven to us He opens wide our heavenly home. There is no other way to heaven except through faith in Jesus. He alone has the Key. He alone is, in fact, the Door. There is no other key to open heaven. It is only in the hand of Jesus who obtained that key to open or shut heaven by His being the Servant.
St. Paul writes in the epistle: the revelation of the mystery that was veiled in silence for long ages past, …now has been revealed through the prophetic Scriptures and made known to all the Gentiles; and as we will hear in a few days [Is 9.2]: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. The point? Jesus not only opens heaven to us to live in but He also opens to us the storehouses of heaven’s gifts and treasures! Eliakim in our text was one who foreshadowed Jesus by being a steward of the king’s treasures; Jesus is the true Steward of the spiritual and heavenly goods. This is the most wonderful thing. Through His holy word and sacraments Jesus comes to us and opens up the heavenly storehouses to us. In His holy word He comes to us and reveals Himself to us, who are prisoners of darkness, slaves to sin and death, who are on that path of misery of sin and guilt. That great mystery of our Savior, who He is and that He has come and saved us from sin, has been revealed to us. That revelation is that great light that we have seen. The amazing thing is that Jesus in His word doesn’t just tell us about Himself but in the word and sacrament He gives us all the gifts and the blessings He won for us by His holy life and innocent suffering and death. At baptism, the heavenly storehouses rained down upon us, our sins were washed away; the Steward of the heavenly gifts clothed us with His righteousness and gave us His Holy Spirit and came to dwell in us. In the Gospel and in the absolution Jesus again and continually opens the heavenly storehouses to us and gives us the full and free forgiveness of sins. In Holy Communion, Jesus, the Steward opens the storehouses of heaven to give us forgiveness of sin and salvation—and He Himself comes to us giving us His very body and blood and unites with us. Here by His word and sacrament, giving us from the heavenly storehouses, Jesus is making safe to us the way that leads on high. O come, Thou Key of David, come, And open wide our heavenly home; Make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery. Yes Jesus our Immanuel comes! INJ