Bible Flowers: The Rose of Sharon
Bible Flowers: The Rose of Sharon.
“Spring flowers are unfolding in the fields. The season of glad songs has come, the cooing of the turtledoves is heard in the land. The fig tree is forming its first figs, and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance. Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come away with me.” (Song of Songs 2:12-13).
Every flower and blossom mentioned in Scripture has a story to tell. Bible flowers are planted in a context, and could be anything from an object lesson or sermon illustration, to a metaphor or a symbol, or perhaps simply a prime example of some of God’s creative genius. No matter what, when we study the flowers of the Bible, we will undoubtedly come to understand the Scriptures that much better,, whether we’re referring to the Henna blooms (Song of Songs 1:14) or the almond tree blossoms (Numbers 17:8); the Rose of Sharon (Song of Songs 2:1) or the hyssop flowers ( ); the Lily of the Valley (Song of Songs 2:1) or the Pomegranate blooms (Ex 28:33); the Crocus Saffron (Is. 35:1-2) or the myriads of wildflowers (Matt. 6:28-29); the Myrtle blooms or Willow blossoms (Ps. 137:1-2).
Is it true that everything physical points to something spiritual? That creation inevitably guides us back to the Creator? That physical realities in nature reflect spiritual realities in supernature? That God’s handiwork leads us to the Handiworker?
Beauty and Fragrance. Flowers are prime examples of how something that appeals to our physical senses can refer us to our spiritual senses. Let’s consider two wondrous qualities of flowers that help us praise the Maker at a deeper level: Beauty and Fragrance. Is there any doubt that only a beautiful God could have created the beauty we discover in flowers? Or that the sweet-smelling aroma of flowers serve to deepen our understanding of the Christian’s role in the world as the aroma of Christ? Because flowers lead the way in appealing to our natural senses, they are able to help us mere mortals to sense God in the full meaning of the term.
Senses and Symbols. Scripture loves to use our physical senses as symbols because if there’s one thing about us we can truly understand, it’s our senses. We may not truly understand our thoughts and actions, but we can understand our tangible senses. So the Bible uses our senses as reference points for how we can experience God more deeply. Our senses represent ways of participating in the Faith, of growing and knowing. Scripture encourages believers to use our senses both literally and spiritually in experiencing God. We can, with God’s help, sense God figuratively, using our physical senses as ideas that trigger a deeper understanding of the Faith.
A Word About the Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible: “For all the world is not as worthy as the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.” (Rabbi Akiva, the ‘Chief of the Sages,’ 50-135 AD).
The Song of Songs, often called the Song of Solomon ever since it was written around 960 BC. The title of this love poem means that this is the best song of all the songs, the most important song, and that this one song surpasses all others. There is debate as to whether Solomon literally wrote this extended love poem, or it was composed for Solomon, or written in honor of Solomon. Because this biblical poem has been understood in many ways down through the centuries, perhaps we can discuss it in the classic Jewish way of, on the one hand this, and on the other hand that…
Literally. On the one hand, the Song of Songs has been accepted simply as a superb piece of poetic literature in honor of romantic love between the lover and his beloved. It has become more popular now to claim that we shouldn’t read too much into it, that it is no more than an extended erotic conversation between two lovers. The intimacy between them is spelled out in graphic detail and the language is the most sensuous and explicit in all of Scripture. The faithful love between the two is a beautiful thing to behold as they celebrate the divinely created union between a woman and a man, a union that is enjoyed physically, emotionally, whole-heartedly, just as God intended.
Symbolically. On the other hand, limiting this classic piece of Scripture to a love poem flies in the face of how it has been historically understood by Jews and Christians alike. Jewish scholars and readers have always understood this book to be an exquisite picture of how God loves His people, Israel. Picking up on this, the early church leaders embraced the Song of Songs as a glorious allegory of the love Christ has for His bride the Church, as well as the love He has for each individual soul. If we followed the tributary of human love back to its source, we find the mysterious river of divine love. The pure intimacy between man and woman is the closest picture we get on earth to grasp the union that God wants with each of us and His body of believers. The human intimacy of Song of Songs is intended to help us understand and develop a profound spiritual intimacy with the Lord. The Song of Songs has been used throughout the history of faith to enable believers to contemplate the mystical union between God and His people, between Christ and His followers, both collectively and individually. In this surprising biblical poem, love is in the air, on every page, in every word. Eugene Peterson encourages the believer to read the Song of Songs devotionally, and he observed that this poem is a “prism in which all the love of God in all the world, and all the responses of those who love and whom God loves, gathers and then separates into individual colors.”
“I am a Rose of Sharon…” (Song of Songs 2:1).
There has been a lot of uncertainty about this simple phrase spoken by the bride to her beloved bridegroom. This particular rose is most likely not the rose we know of today. The Rose of Sharon is more likely to be a general term for all the beautiful meadow wildflowers which made the plain of Sharon so famous. Sharon was an incredibly stunning extended meadow known for its unusually fertile soil and abundance of many varieties of flowers. The Plain of Sharon is near Mt. Carmel on the west coast of Israel north of Tel Aviv. So the general term of rose in this passage could have meant anything from a crocus to an hibiscus, a narcissus to a jonquil. Many have even claimed that the Rose of Sharon is actually referring to a specific flower called the Sharon tulip. At any rate, the rose of Sharon could very well have been the bride’s reference to her uncultivated beauty, a loveliness that tends to be overlooked but is still worthy of love.
The Rose, though, has always been considered the queen of the flowers because of its unparallelled beauty and uniquely fragrant aroma. Down through history in the Christian church, both Jesus and Mary have been referred to as a rose because of their beautiful character and the powerful fragrance of love that they exude.
Jesus as the Rose of Sharon. Seeing that the Greek word for beauty, “kalos,” is used in Mark 7:37, we can read, “And the people were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘Everything He does is beautiful!” In the life and ministry of Jesus we see the beautiful character of God in all His goodness, kindness and compassion. And St. Paul wrote about the aroma of Christ more than once, in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 as he revealed that Jesus emits the very “fragrance of life.” And in Ephesians 5:2, Paul focuses on the Christ-like aroma of love: “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” In Christ is the sweet perfume that is wafting throughout the world, the fragrance of Christ’s victory over darkness, the smell of knowing God and of spreading that knowledge, and the aroma of God’s holiness being spread in the eyes of all the nations.
One of the most haunting and sublime songs in Christian history highlights this image of Christ as a rose. “Lo, how a rose e’er blooming” is a traditional German carol that is sung everywhere during Advent and Christmas, and deserves to be sung year-round:
1 “Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming
From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming
As men of old have sung.
It came, a flower bright,
Amid the cold of winter
When half-gone was the night.
2 Isaiah ’twas foretold it,
The Rose I have in mind:
With Mary we behold it,
The virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright
She bore to men a Savior
When half-gone was the night.
3 This Flower, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us
And lightens every load.”
Mary as the Rose of Sharon. The mother of Jesus has been represented by the rose down through history as well, and since the original passage in the Song of Songs is spoken by a bride, perhaps it makes more sense for the Rose of Sharon to represent a woman like Mary. It also seems logical that the Queen of Heaven is represented by the queen of the flowers. Apparently, every vision of Mary contains roses as her flower of choice, and in her many apparitions on earth she has pointed to the rose as a sign of her presence and blessing. John Henry Newman meditated on Mary as the Mystical Rose in his journal: “Mary is the most beautiful flower ever seen in the spiritual world. It is by the power of God’s grace that from this barren and desolate earth there ever sprung up at all flowers of holiness and glory; and Mary is the Queen of them all. She is the Queen of spiritual flowers; and therefore, is called the Rose, for the rose is called of all flowers the most beautiful. But, moreover, she is the Mystical or Hidden Rose, for mystical means hidden.” (“Rosa Mystica,” John Henry Newman, Meditations and Devotions,1893). We can’t forget, too, that the classic form of prayer and meditation known as the Rosary is centered on Mary and requesting that she pray for us. The term “rosary” is the Latin term meaning “rose garden” or “garland of roses.” Here once again we see Mary and her intimate association with roses.
Mary has been historically adored as a spiritual Rose on earth, and an English Christmas carol titled “Rosa Mystica” has stood the test of time since the 15th century extolling Mary as the rose that bore Jesus:
Notre Dame Folk Choir sings “Rosa Mystica” at the Abbey of Gethsemani
“There is no rose of such virtue as is the rose that bore Jesu. Alleluia.
For in this rose contained was Heaven and earth in a little space.
By that rose we may well see that He is God in Persons three.
The angels sungen the shepherds to Gloria in excelcis deo.
Leave we all this worldly mirth and follow we this joyful birth. Alleluia.”
There Is No Rose Of Such Virtue
The white rose may symbolize Mary’s purity and innocence, and the red rose her willingness to suffer in love for others, including her divine Son. Remembering that Simeon prophesied that a “sword would pierce your soul” (Luke 2:35) at Jesus’ death, Saint Brigid remarked that “the Virgin may suitably be called a blooming rose. Just as the gentle rose is placed among thorns, so this gentle Virgin was surrounded by sorrow.”
Why the focus on Mary? One way of thinking about her as a rose is that the beauty of Mary’s character leads us to the Father, and the fragrance of her holiness attracts our souls to the Son. We make a major blunder in our faith if we underestimate Mary’s spiritual significance. For as Mother Theresa of Calcutta once said, “No Mary, No Jesus!” And we would do well to remember Mary’s words at the wedding in Cana as she directly pointed to her Son and said… “Whatever He says to you, make sure you do it.” (John 2:5).
In 1874, Gerard Manley Hopkins, perhaps the finest poet in the English language, composed this classic poem about Mary, but also interestingly includes Jesus as well, entitled, “Rosa Mystica:”
“The rose in a mystery, where is it found?
Is it anything true? Does it grow upon ground? —
It was made of earth’s mould but it went from men’s eyes
And its place is a secret and shut in the skies.
Refrain —
In the gardens of God, in the daylight divine
Find me a place by thee, mother of mine.
But where was it formerly? which is the spot
That was blest in it once, though now it is not? —
It is Galilee’s growth: it grew at God’s will
And broke into bloom upon Nazareth hill.
In the gardens of God, in the daylight divine
I shall look on thy loveliness, mother of mine.
What was its season then? how long ago?
When was the summer that saw the bud blow? —
Two thousands of years are near upon past
Since its birth and its bloom and its breathing its last.
In the gardens of God, in the daylight divine
I shall keep time with thee, mother of mine.
Tell me the name now, tell me its name.
The heart guesses easily: is it the same? —
Mary the Virgin, well the heart knows,
She is the mystery, she is that rose.
In the gardens of God, in the daylight divine
I shall come home to thee, mother of mine.
Is Mary the rose then? Mary the tree?
But the blossom, the blossom there, who can it be? —
Who can her rose be? It could be but one:
Christ Jesus our Lord, her God and her son.
In the gardens of God, in the daylight divine
Shew me thy son, mother, mother of mine.
What was the colour of that blossom bright? —
White to begin with, immaculate white.
But what a wild flush on the flakes of it stood
When the rose ran in crimsonings down the cross-wood!
In the gardens of God, in the daylight divine
I shall worship His wounds with thee, mother of mine.
How many leaves had it? — Five they were then,
Five like the senses and members of men;
Five is their number by nature, but now
They multiply, multiply who can tell how?
In the gardens of God, in the daylight divine
Make me a leaf in thee, mother of mine.
Does it smell sweet too in that holy place? —
Sweet unto God, and the sweetness is grace:
O Breath of it bathes great heaven above
In grace that is charity, grace that is love.
To thy breast, to thy rest, to thy glory divine
Draw me by charity, mother of mine.”