Hail the Sun of Righteousness
My favorite Christmas hymn is “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” written by Charles Wesley. I love its rich truths about Christ and the gospel. The text is based on many different passages in Scripture.
In the first stanza, Wesley poetically summarizes the angels’ message to the shepherds that Christ, the newborn King, had been born in Bethlehem. He describes Jesus as Christ the Lord, the Savior, sent to bring peace and reconcile God and man. Much of this first stanza comes from Luke 2:10–14.
Wesley further describes Christ in the second stanza as the everlasting Lord, adored by heaven. He is our Immanuel (“God with us”; cf. Matt 1:23). He is both God and man, born of a virgin.
The final stanza begins with a familiar title for Jesus, the Prince of Peace (cf. Isa 9:6). But then Wesley uses a less familiar description of Jesus, hailing him as the “Sun of righteousness” who brings light and life, as well as “healing in his wings.”
The title “Sun of righteousness” is found in Malachi 4:2. It follows a verse describing the future judgment on all evildoers, in which they shall be set “ablaze” (Mal 4:1). In contrast is what will happen to those who fear the name of the Lord:
But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. (Mal 4:2)
Whereas God will burn evildoers as in a furnace, the full rays of God’s righteousness will shine on those who fear him. One commentator states:
To appreciate the real meaning of this promise, we must consider three components of the context. The first is the simile of the sun. The thrust of the comparison is not that it will become fully day for the righteous, but rather that the light of the sun is representing the fullness of God’s salvation for them. In this metaphor we have two emphases: on the comprehensiveness and on the nature of God’s righteousness for those who fear him. It will shine forth not like a little candle in the night, but as the sun in its blazing fullness; furthermore, it will not bring darkness but shining light, in the sense of salvation and deliverance.1
Malachi goes on to describe the Sun of righteousness with “healing in its wings.” Ancient cultures apparently depicted the sun as a “winged disk.”2
In the ancient Near East it was common to depict the sun’s rays as the wings of a bird (Ps 139:9), and the connection with healing comes from the imagery of a bird’s protective wings (Deut 32:11).3
Although full healing from all of earth’s pain, disease, and death is included when Christ comes again one day, one can’t help but remember why Christ came to earth the first time. Isaiah 53:5 tells us,
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed [emphasis added].
Jesus is the Sun of Righteousness who brings light and life (cf. John 8:12), “rising” to heal us from all our sins. He laid aside his glory (cf. Phil 2:5-8) to die and rise again (cf. 1 Cor 15:3-4) so that we might have a second birth (cf. John 3:3).
What should our response be to these truths? Malachi himself spoke of how those who feared God and saw his righteousness and healing would respond: “You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall” (Mal 4:2). I googled “calves leaping with joy,” and I found several videos (including this one) that show exactly that—leaping calves picturing great joy.
The results of the healing work of the “sun of righteousness” on behalf of those who fear the Lord will be twofold. First, they will “go out and leap like calves released from the stall.” It would be hard to find a more vivid image of the excitement that will be felt by those who have just been delivered completely and forever from the darkness, pain, and grief of a world cursed by sin.4
May we contemplate Jesus Christ this season as more than simply the babe in the manger. He is the Prince of Peace and the Sun of Righteousness who brings us healing from our sins and death; and through His death He gives us the hope of a second birth.
Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
born that we no more may die,
born to raise us from the earth,
born to give us second birth.Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King”5
Holly Huffstutler serves with her husband David, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Rockford, IL. She blogs with him here where this post first appeared. Holly is a homemaker, raising and schooling her four children.
Photo by Jordan Wozniak on Unsplash
- Pieter A. Verhoef, The Books of Haggai and Malachi (New International Commentary on the Old Testament; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987), 329. [↩]
- Ibid, 330. [↩]
- Richard A. Taylor and E. Ray Clendenen, Haggai, Malachi (New American Commentary; Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2004), 452. [↩]
- Ibid, 453. [↩]
- “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” written by Charles Wesley, born Dec. 18, 1707. [↩]