George Frideric Handel’s Messiah is a masterpiece that has enjoyed unparalleled prominence with audiences all over the globe. This enduring success is not without reason. History recounts the near-miraculous composition of Messiah. Handel wrote the first 100 pages in just six days, during which time he is said to have stayed in his room with meals left untouched. The entirety of Messiah was completed in just over three weeks.[1]
1. Gregory S. Athnos, Handel’s Messiah: A New View of Its Musical and Spiritual Architecture–Study Guide for Listeners and Performers (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023), 11. I am deeply indebted to Athnos for the insights in this article, and I commend his accessible work for those who are interested in learning more about Handel’s Messiah.
In such a short amount of time, Handel set texts compiled by Charles Jennens to a majestic musical score designed to lift the affections of the audience as they consider the glory of God’s redeeming work through the divine Messiah. As Christ Over All considers all parts of this Messiah this month, I will examine the beginning of Part III, which focuses on the triumph of Christ and the hope of resurrection. Throughout this section, Handel draws deep connections with Parts I and II demonstrating the fulfillment of the biblical hope in not only the resurrection of Christ, but the promise of the resurrection for believers. To truly participate in the Messiah, the listener must be truly participating in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, by faith. Handel’s aim throughout Part III is to demonstrate the implications of the Messiah’s work for the believer and to listener on to hope and trust Jesus Christ as he portrays the glorious promises found only through Jesus Christ. But to understand Part III, we must set the context moving through Parts I and II.
Setting the Context: Seeing All Three Parts
Throughout Parts I and II, Handel chronicled the coming of the Messiah. Part I enumerated various prophecies pointing to the plans and purposes of God in bringing forth the Messiah, his miraculous birth, and his glorious life. Then, Part II meditated on the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of our glorious Lord, which culminated in the majestic “Hallelujah Chorus.” Following the glory of the “Hallelujah Chorus,” many have been spurred to ask, why include a third part? What more remains?
Calvin Stapert helpfully responds, “The answer is this: although the victory has been won and its results are certain, the results have not yet been fully realized.”[2] Part III, then, shifts to the glorious hope that Christians have because of the triumph of the Messiah. The Messiah’s work is glorious because, we, his people are included in that work. To listen to the Messiah is to participate in the glorious composition, but the Messiah was not created as a mere musical score. The Messiah invites the listener to participate in the glorious Christian hope by actively attempting to shape the affections of the listener. This is nowhere more obvious than the believers’ participation in the hope for the return of Jesus Christ and the glory of the resurrection.
2. Calvin R. Stapert, Handel’s Messiah: Comfort for God’s People (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 142.
The Enduring Effects of Christ’s Resurrection
Part III follows the resurrection of Jesus Christ with the citation of Job 19:25–26, which begins section 45: “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” The triumph of the Messiah through the resurrection is the ground of the Christians hope! Handel frames this biblical citation in the key of E major, which was last heard at the beginning of the Oratorio (#2 and #3) with the declaration: “Comfort ye, my people.”[3] Through the work of the Messiah, the crooked paths have been made straight, and the rough places have been made smooth (#3). Now, in the promise of resurrection, the Lord’s people find comfort knowing that our redeemer lives and that no matter what comes, we will behold the Lord. Handel’s connection of comfort and hope, therefore, are wedded in the fact that “Christ is risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).
3. For further insight into the Baroque doctrine of affections and Handel’s employment throughout the Messiah, see Athnos, Handel’s Messiah, 1–5.
The citation of 1 Corinthians 15 continues into the chorus (#46). Handel begins, “Since by man came death” (1 Cor. 15:21a) framed in the key of A minor, which mirrors the tenor Air (#43), “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Ps. 2:9). Handel connects the destruction of God’s enemies with the defeat of the final foe, death. The ominous gives way to the glorious, as Handel switches to C major and the grand declaration “by man also came the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:21b). This affect is mirrored with the final text of this section: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22). “For as in Adam all die,” composed in G minor, evokes discontentment and uneasiness in the listener, which gives way to the hope that in Christ all will be made alive.
Handel resolves G minor into A minor as he concludes this chorus connecting the defeat of God’s enemy death with the death of the Messiah. The tension in the holy war of the Messiah finds resolution in the embrace and defeat of that enemy, death. In the work of Christ, the disharmony of the universe is resolved into God’s redemptive purposes. The grand problem of sin and death came into the world by the first Adam, and this problem has been resolved in the last Adam, Jesus Christ.
Continuing to reflect on 1 Corinthians 15 and the effect of the resurrection, Handel opens Section 47 with a lone bass voice declaring the glorious mystery that “we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet” (1 Cor. 15:51–52). This declaration is fortified with a sweeping trumpet solo to begin the Air (#48), which gives way to the soaring bass voice declaring the promise of God: the transformation of mortality into immortality. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the culmination of the ages, but it was not the end of history. Time marches on, and the people of God are faced with wars, famine, tribulation, and ultimately death.
It is precisely here that the victory of Christ provides sweet hope for the believer in Jesus. One day the trumpet will sound, and the sweeping victorying of Jesus Christ will be brought to its full and final conclusion. Mortality will be swallowed up by immortality; the profane swallowed up by glory. This sin-cursed world will give way to the glorious righteousness of the eternal kingdom of God where death and sin are no more. Just as Jesus Christ triumphed over his enemies, the everlasting hope for the believer is that we will have victory in our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the theme that Handel picks up (#49–#51).
Handel’s meditation on victory begins with an alto recitative (#49), which is intended to fill the listeners with hope and aspiration as they are led to further consider the glorious implications of Christ’s victory. Handel builds upon this meditation with the inclusion of a tenor voice (#50) and further strengthens the annunciation in doxology with the addition of the choir (#51). This layering effect strengthens the pronouncements and is designed to increase the passionate hope of the listeners as they are led to consider (#49) the swallowing up of death (1 Cor. 15:54) and (#50) the removal of death’s sting (1 Cor. 15:55–56), which gives way to praise for the work of the every glorious Messiah (#51): “But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57).
When listening Messiah, the listener is not merely consuming the beautiful melodies and complex harmonies. The listeners are invited to participate with their hearts and minds as they are led by the music to set their hope on Jesus Christ and rejoice with whole-souled gratitude for his glorious triumph over sin, Satan and death. True participation with the Messiah requires that the listener is participating in the true Messiah by faith.
Handel has beautifully expounded the glorious hope of resurrection, but even in the midst of this glorious hope, the Christian continues life in the midst of a fallen world assailed by suffering, persecution, and sin. How are Christians to handle this inter-advental pilgrimage to Celestial City? Handel moves from triumphant victory (#49–#51) to a hauntingly beautiful section set in G minor(#52).
The key of G minor is meant to evoke uneasiness in the listener,[4] as life in this sin-cursed world causes feelings of uneasiness in those who long for Christ’s kingdom. Indeed, the uneasiness of G minor is set over and against the declaration that all things have been made harmonious in Jesus Christ, evidenced by the citation of Romans 8:31 and 33–34: “If God be for us, who can be against us? . . . Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us.”
4. Athnos, Handel’s Messiah, 127.
Even as Christians are led as sheep to slaughter (Rom. 8:36) and as the world groans around us (Rom. 8:22), we find hope and comfort in the fact that we are justified, our sins are forgiven, and our blessed savior continues his work in interceding on our behalf as we walk through the dissonance of this world awaiting his glorious second coming, which is where Handel concludes the Messiah.
The final chorus of the Messiah is a glorious meditation on Revelation 5:12–14: “Worthy is the lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen.” Handel moves from the uneasiness of this world with a pronounced shift to D major, the same key as the “Hallelujah Chorus.” With this shift, the listener leaves this world and is transported to the throne of God where the angels and all creatures are declaring the glory and worth of the Lamb of God, and the culmination of all of history in his glorious redemption. As Christians, our hope is not that we will be observants to this glory, but that through the work of Jesus Christ, we will participants in God’s glory. When Christ returns in glory, we will be made like him (1 Jn. 3:2).
Don’t Just Listen to the Music, Live It
Handel’s Messiah is a glorious meditation on the redemptive plans and purposes of God, but more than that, Handel’s Messiah is our invitation to participate in those plans and purposes by entrusting ourselves to the divine Messiah, who is victorious over death. Furthermore, the Messiah reminds us that Christ’s death and ascension is not the end, but it is the beginning of the end. Christians journey on in this life entrusting ourselves to the blessed savior knowing that in him we have the forgiveness of sins and a hope that transcends the grave.
