Category: key

O Key of David

O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel; you open and no one can shut; you shut and no one can open: Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house, those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

JMJ
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What is happening here? After yesterday’s particularity, the coming Christchild is called the key of David, seemingly reverting back to something less-particular. I struggle with this verse every year because the rod of David’s father is now David’s key. What is happening here?

David is known for ruling Israel, begetting Solomon the Wise, and writing the Psalms. How is Jesus the Key of David?

The Psalms are considered by Christian tradition to be the prophetic heart of the Old Testament. In the Orthodox Church David is called a prophet for his crafting of these texts. But it is not clear how many many messianic images are here to be fulfilled until one begins to notice how often the Psalms come up in the New Testament and in the Apostolic and Post-Apostolic texts. The Church has read this whole book in the light of Christ since the very beginning.

Monastics in the desert prayed these texts from memory, meditating on the words, the word order, and the progression of symbols. St Gregory of Nyssa even found salubrious content in the inscriptions for the Psalms! From this process of prayer and meditation, the Church has allowed David’s deepest meaning to be unveiled, unlocked by Christ.

So Christ is the key of the Psalms and so of all the Hebrew Scriptures. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27) He unlocks the text and no one can shut it. Once you see the meaning, you can’t unsee it. And all of even his own life points to his death.

The dirty wood of the manger becomes the dirty word of the cross. The swaddling clothes become the winding sheets of the tomb. The tears of joy from his mother become her deepest sadness at the cross. The shepherds who worship become the crowd of scorners. The Kings doing homage become the soldiers and officials taunting him. The blood and water of birth become the blood and water from his side. The angels Gloria becomes stunned silence. The lost family looking for a place to lay a new baby becomes the lost friends looking for a place to lay a dead man. Jesus is the key… everything is unlocked.

What does Jesus lock? Escape is no longer an option. We have more on that in the next post on the antiphons.

O Key – 4th Advent Meditation

O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel, qui aperis, et nemo claudit, claudis, et nemo aperuit: veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.
O Key of David, and sceptre of the house of Israel, you open, and no one shuts, you shut, and no one opens: come, and lead the prisoner from jail, seated in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Jesus’ Advent is rather both like and unlike Prometheus bringing fire: it’s not enough that he has fire, he has to bring it to all of us. We must become fire.  What, exactly are you imprisoned by? The verse says “darkness and shadow of death”.  Let us set aside “shadow of death” for a moment… but St Paul has some stuff to say about “darkness” in his Epistle to the Ephesians:

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints: Or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose; but rather giving of thanks. For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols), hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief. Be ye not therefore partakers with them. For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk then as children of the light. For the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth; Proving what is well pleasing to God: And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of. But all things that are reproved, are made manifest by the light; for all that is made manifest is light.  

Ephesians 5:3-13

Even writing to the saints of God, he admits that “you were heretofore darkness”  something has happened, however, and the Ephesians are “now light in the Lord.”   Nunc autem lux. – You are now light.  In the Sermon on the mount, Jesus says, Vos estis lux mundi. “You are the light of the world.”

We do however, have a painful ministry: the purpose of light is to illuminate the darkness.

Tim Tebow, a professional football player, is getting a lot of press lately: his girlfriend broke up with him because he won’t have sex with her prior to marriage. That’s shining a light on the darkness and it’s bothering people: so they are making fun of him for not committing fornication with Miss Universe.  This is the second girl to dump him for this reason, the last one being a Children’s TV star.

I wish I had learned that lesson in my teens… I might not still be struggling with becoming an adult now. We’re imprisoned in darkness.  The thing about darkness is you can’t see how bad it all is.  When someone comes along and shines a light on it, you’ve got a choice to make: step away or yell at the light-bringer.

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.

Sex, however, is easy to point at and too expected: we’re surrounded by darkness.  Abortion, war, suicide, guns, violence, slow destruction by drugs and alcohol, TV shows and computer games that glorify killing – but even that’s too easy.  Our comedy is dark: making just fun out of our darker evils. Have you ever seen a show called “Absolutely Fabulous”?  It’s anything but.  Reality TV allows us to see everyone’s darker side.  Other TV shows glorify gluttony, greed, anger, and arrogance.  Our politics is filled with the glory of lies and expediency.

The thing is, all this darkness is death.  Humans are not mushrooms and we need light to live.  But we have, as it were, become convinced that we are mushrooms.  We think all of this is normal – healthy. The Evil One makes us hate what is good for us and love what is bad for us. In fact this is such a good trick of his, that he makes us think the bad stuff really is us.  A friend speaking of the recent Supreme Court decision on marriage said she “was given my full humanity…”  I had no idea how to peacefully challenge her on that point.  That’s not your humanity: that’s a lie.  What part of my life in Christ has failed so much that she could her I would agree with her, and what part of my inability to have a peaceful reply allows her to continue in that mistake? We let Jesus deal with that, I think, and her confessor.

But how is your life a light that shines in the darkness?  How is mine so?  St Paul says, “Walk as children of the Light” and Jesus says, “Let your light shine before men”. Paul says that will prove the truth of God, Jesus says “that men may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven.”  Paul adds that it will reprove the works of darkness.

Which, of course, means they won’t like us so much any more.

That is the whole point of Christmas becoming a light in a world of darkness and dying for it.