STUMP OF JESSE - A: 2nd Sun of Advent

First Reading: Isa 11:1-10 (4 December 2022)

“On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom” (Isa 11:1).

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2022) defines a stump as “the basal portion of a bodily part remaining after the rest is removed; a rudimentary or vestigial bodily part; or the part of a plant and especially a tree remaining attached to the root after the trunk is cut.” The stump, hence, is the almost-lifeless remains of a cut-down tree. It has no more trunk, branches, nor leaves, but its roots underneath may still be alive. This limpness reverberates the meaning of the verb “to stump,” i.e., “[to] trim, dare, challenge; to frustrate the progress or efforts of; [to] baffle.”

If this understanding is correlated to what Isaiah describes about the stump of Jesse, it goes on to say that this tribe was at the verge of total annihilation, never to be prolific once again.

However, a sign of hope is revealed in the prophecy, when a tiny shoot could blossom from the stump of the tree (v. 1). From its roots, a rebirth could happen, which proved to be better than the previous tree that had existed. Accordingly, this new one would bring peace, harmony, and tranquility, bringing to an end all the existing discrimination, quarrels, and oppressions that surround it:

“He shall judge the poor with justice, and decide fairly for the land’s afflicted …. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a band around his hips” (v. 5).

This reign of righteousness is further explored as Isaiah presented a certain paradox where creatures who are normally opposed to each other could exist harmoniously. This includes the accord between the wolf and the lamb (v. 6a), the calf and young lion (v. 6b), the cow and the bear (v. 7a), the lion and the ox (v. 7b), and the baby and the viper/cobra (v. 8a). Isaiah concluded that their gathering would be very peaceful since “[t]here shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the earth” (v. 9).

This tranquility came about because all these creatures would possess the spirit of the Lord, particularly the fear of the Lord, that would bring them delight (v. 3).

This peaceful intermixing of wild beasts and pacific animals resonate two earlier biblical accounts, viz., the harmony in the Garden of Eden where all creatures co-existed in one environment, and the stability inside the ark of Noah wherein pairs of living beings of every kind stayed together for around one year. In both incidents, the spirit of fear of the Lord subsisted. In the former, Eden was without any discord because the Lord physically stayed in the garden, walking around it (Gen 3:8) and securing its periphery with personally-assigned cherubim (vv. 23-24). In the latter, Noah’s ark was a sanctuary of God’s love and protection, given that he had just completely purged the whole world by sending a catastrophic flood that wiped out human existence (7:11-24). Those who were kept inside the ark were delivered by God’s salvific action (8:15), making them revere and respect him with burnt offerings (v. 20).

In sum, Jesse’s stump—and so are other kinds of human stumps—can have their rebirths and even evolutions. Despite being almost lifeless, any person, community, or society can still rise from the ashes of defeat and hopelessness, provided the spirit of fear of the Lord is embraced.

- Rex Fortes, CM