It’s an oft-used sermon illustration. A little child, scared of being alone in the night, isn’t comforted when her mother says, “Jesus is with you.” Says the child, “I want Jesus with His skin on.”
The Biblical writers stressed that Jesus is truly human, that he has His skin on. Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy, Jesus’ earthly family tree (1:17). Paul begins Romans by calling Jesus Christ, “Our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh.” (1:3) Has anyone ever told you, “I know what you’re going through?” but in fact hasn’t personally experienced your burden? “We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
“O Root of Jesse” begins another of the Advent “O Antiphons.” Jesse was an ancestor of Jesus; the Root of Jesse is Jesus. “O Root of Jesse, standing as an ensign before the peoples, before whom all kings are mute, to whom the nations will do homage: Come quickly to deliver us.”
No human hero will ever humble the world’s haughty. Only the “Son of God and Son of Man,” the root of Jesse, Jesus with His skin on. “Come quickly to deliver us!”
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