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Now that we’ve seen (and heard) how Handel deals with the prophetic nature of the crucifixion, we next come to the resurrection, the ascension, as well as His enthronement as the glorified Son.

As with the section on Messiah’s ministry, this section is quite brief, with just three prophetic allusions. First, a final reflection on His death (Isaiah 53:8), then the resurrection (Psalm 16:10), and Messiah’s triumphal entry as “the King of Glory” (Psa 24:7–10).

This yet again seems to invite us to meditate on the prophetic implications of these, instead of an in-depth account from the Gospels. It also focuses our attention on the fulfilled nature of His mission.

The first piece, which provides the link back to the reference in John 1:29 to “the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world”, and concludes the references from Isaiah 53, followed by the briefest of references to His resurrection:

“He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgressions of Thy people was He stricken.

But Thou didst not leave His soul in hell; nor didst Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption.”

As the Lamb of God He has now, by His sacrifice, removed our guilt for sin by overcoming Satan. In doing so He stripped him of “the keys of death and of Hades” (Rev 1:18). The consequence of this for humanity is that we are now not judged by Satan, the accuser, whose every action is to propagate guilt and shame. Instead, we are now to be judged by the One who judges justly.

He is also now our divine forerunner, the King of Glory who has secured, not only His own glory, but our restoration as well, and our ultimate reunion in glory with Him in eternity.

 

From there we are taken directly to Messiah’s triumphal ascension into Heaven, where, by means of the prophecy in Psalm 24:7–10, and Handel’s joyous and majestic music, He is acclaimed as “the King of glory, the Lord of hosts”.

Handel treats this as a “call and response”, where the women in the chorus sing the first line, with the men singing the questioning response, until they combine to affirm that “He is the King of Glory”.

“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in.

Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in.

Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory.”

For me this prefaces the finale of the whole work, where He will be acclaimed as both “the Lamb that was slain”, in fulfillment of the previous section for the crucifixion which began with John the Baptist’s “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29).

This is followed directly by a brief interlude from Hebrews 1:5–6 which almost sounds like a rhetorical question followed by its logical conclusion, the question asked by the tenor soloist, with the choir responding:

“Unto which of the angels said He at any time: ‘Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee?’”

Let all the angels of God worship Him.”

Now we see the Messiah crowned as the glorified Son, to whom even the angels bow down and worship.

 

This brings us to the culmination of this section, from Psalm 68:18:

“Thou art gone up on high; Thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts for men; yea, even from Thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them.”

This is a marvellous picture of the Messiah as a victorious Warrior King, leading the victorious procession into the heavenly realm, and with “captivity captive”, a beautiful paradoxical description of Satan, the one who held the whole creation in captivity now himself bound and dragged in humiliation. As Paul tells us:

“For the eagerly awaiting creation waits for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only that, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our body.” (Rom 8:19–23 NASB).

So, while we live in the tension of “the now and the not yet”, we know that Satan’s power over us is broken. We have been shown mercy, and we live within the double action of grace. It is both the undeserved favour which makes our salvation possible, but also what theologian Gordon Fee described as “God’s empowering Presence”. This enables us to know that same victory over sin, and the attendant guilt and shame, that the Messiah procured for us. By His death and resurrection He usurped death and enthroned Life.

 

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Photo by Samuel Sianipar/Unsplash.