Music courtesy of The Falls Church Anglican Choir, Falls Church, Virginia, under the musical direction of Simon Dixon. Audio mastering by Andrew Schooley. From Messiah by George Frideric Handel (1742)

Listen to the full playlist for Handel’s Messiah.

Each of us has turned from God to follow a way of our own choosing, a way rooted in self-seeking. We make our choices, then our choices make us. Over time, they inevitably produce grief, pain, sorrow, and iniquity. We seek remedies of many kinds but they give no lasting relief.

Yet lasting relief can be found. It is found in a Person: Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. He came from heaven to earth to offer Himself as “the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:2). To rescue the wandering sheep of God, Jesus endured suffering, rejection, sorrow, grief, and ultimately death itself, taking upon Himself all the iniquities of those who have gone astray. He paid the full penalty for our all of our sins, a penalty that we could never pay. Now He offers us pardon, peace, and the power to live a new life, in which “those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised”
(2 Cor. 5:15). The person who lives for Christ finds that His Spirit empowers them to increasingly bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23), becoming more and more like Him.

Jesus is still saying, as He did long ago, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30).