"How hast Thou offended . . . ?

Jasper National Park, August 10, 2010

Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended,
that we to judge thee have in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted! 

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee!
'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee;
I crucified thee. 

For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation,
thy mortal sorrow, and thy life's oblation;
thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,
for my salvation.

Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee,
I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee,
think on thy pity and thy love unswerving,
not my deserving.


We sang the English version of Herzliebster Jesu in the Maundy Thursday service at Eigenheim Mennonite Church yesterday. Written in a time and place of murder, plunder and the plague in Europe, Johann Heerman, poet and hymn writer, was familiar with the kind of affliction in which he visualizes the agony and death of Christ.
      
The theme of Herzliebster Jesu runs through most of his poetry. Sin is the general human condition in his writing, but it is also the dominant, personal attribute for which nothing would suffice but that the Son of God must be horribly punished in place of me, me, me, the guilty one, the one who made Jesus’ death necessary. In another hymn, he writes:

Christ, thy sacred Wounds and Passion,
Bloody Sweat, Cross, Death, and tomb,
Be my daily Meditation,
Till I to thy Presence come.
When a sinful Thought shall start,
Ready to seduce my heart;
Shew me, that my own Pollution
Caus'd thy bloody Execution.

It’s Good Friday . . . again. Many will go to churches and some will sing the poetry of Johann Heerman that, by now, has survived at least 350 years of presence in the Christian Church and in the theology that has under-girded thousands and thousands of hymns and sermons over time. It’s called substitutionay atonement or, viewed slightly differently, understood as a ransom transaction. Satan imprisoned me in a cycle of sin, and Jesus’ death paid the ransom to free me.

Whatever else the meaning of Christ’s agony may be, it is surely the most poignant metaphor for the worst, most persistent human condition, a condition with which we’re all familiar. I saw video recently of a wide-eyed, frightened child in Syria choking to death as a result of a chemical attack by the Syrian army. “ Ah, innocent children of war, how have you offended, that we to judge you have in hate pretended?” The manner of Jesus’ death was neither unusual nor more painful than that of millions and millions of innocents who’ve experienced the fruit of the “sin of lost humanity.” That Christ had to be sacrificed in order for me to be forgiven is a pale theology beside the depth of meaning in knowing that: 1) Jesus understood and embraced the common agony of humankind, and 2) Jesus demonstrated for us the depth and meaning of love that is persistent, eternal, unconditional.

Good Friday is a struggle for many. For one, it pits the humanist Christ against the fundamentalist Christ . . . all over again. For some, the language of the eucharist, of communion (eat my flesh, drink my blood) is uncomfortable, even when it’s engaged in gently and symbolically; all that at the same time as the spirit of love and community is released in its observance.

I, personally, am convinced that the life and death of Christ models the worst and the best in the human condition and in so doing, reveals to us a path to a better, happier, more peaceful experience of the universe for all of us. And I don’t mean for all of us Christians, I mean FOR ALL OF US PEOPLE. 

Too singular a preoccupation with personal guilt and redemption obscures this path and the consequences are everywhere visible: “Christians” inured to suffering (it matters less to me when I know my salvation is secure); “Christians” focused on the good feelings, the camaraderie of worshiping only with the like-minded (the comfortable pew); “Christians” driven by doctrine and therefore by self-justifying strategies (a bonus consequence of Johann Heerman’s Weltanschauung.) Are these the effects that Christ was willing to go all the way to capital punishment to encourage?

This Good Friday, I mean to meditate on two scripture passages as my observance of the day. “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ They cast lots to divide his garments among them (Luke 23:34),” and “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted (Isaiah 53:3&4, NIV).”

And yet. And yet, the “Ah, Dearest Jesus” hymn comes to us as a charisma, a gift of the Holy Spirit. Do let it be this to you by clicking here.