Scriptures: Galatians 6:14, 1st Corinthians 1:18-31, Matthew 22:37
Good Friday Reflection:
Good morning everyone.
For many years the BBC Good Friday radio broadcast has started with the hymn, When I survey the wondrous cross. The words for When I survey were written by Isaac Watts in 1707 in preparation for a communion service. Isaac Watts was about 33 years old at the time. The hymn was originally named “Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ,” but apparently that didn’t catch on and these days we simply call it by the opening line When I survey.
Isaac Watts was the son of a deacon in the Independent Church. As an 18 year old Watts was critical of the hymns they sang in church in the 17th Century, so his father said to him, “Make some yourself then.”
And that’s exactly what Isaac Watts did. He started writing his own hymns. Over his lifetime he penned the lyrics for about 750 songs, including Joy to world, which we sing at Christmas time.
Many consider ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’ to be one of the greatest hymns ever composed. Certainly it was ground breaking in its day. When I survey is unlike the other hymns, of that time, in that it reflects a personal spiritual experience. It describes the affect the cross of Christ can have on the human soul.
The sentiment of the opening line (and indeed the whole song) is that “We cannot understand the full meaning of the cross of Christ. We can only stand in silence before it, acknowledge its wonder, and submit to its power.” [1]
At that stage in church history many people had been focused on getting their doctrines right. While good doctrine is helpful for guiding our thinking about God, Watts could see that doctrine by itself wasn’t enough. Faith in God isn’t just a set of philosophical principles or ideas to be examined under the microscope of our mind. We don’t define God. God defines us.
On some level Isaac Watts knew that God is relational and people need to have a personal encounter with Jesus. We need the love of God to touch us on the inside. Songs like When I survey were controversial in Watts’ day, perhaps because they were considered too subjective or too emotional. And yet, for over 300 years,the song When I survey the wondrous cross has opened people’s hearts to the wonder of God’s love and given us a way to express our deep personal gratitude to Jesus.
The second line of the song refers to the ‘Prince of Glory’. This is a title for Jesus. Prince of Glory (with a capital G) means Prince of heaven.
‘Prince of Glory’ also indicates that all glory and honour are due to Jesus.
In the last line of the first verse of the song Watts talks about pouring contempt on all my pride. Contempt is the feeling that something is worthless. And pride, in the context of this song, is a feeling of self-satisfaction. Pride says, ‘I don’t need God. I can do this on my own.’ Therefore, ‘to pour contempt on our pride’ is to consider our own achievements as worthless and to rely, not on ourselves but rather, on what Christ has achieved through the cross.
C.S. Lewis had some things to say about pride. He said, for example,
…pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense. [2]
A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. [3]
…it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.
In verse 2 of the hymn we speak directly to God saying, ‘Forbid it Lord that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my Lord’. This is a paraphrase of Paul’s words in Galatians 6:14, where the apostle writes,
‘May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.’
The world, in this verse from Galatians, refers to everything that is against God. The world then is not so much a geographical place. The world, in this context, refers to an ‘anti-God state of mind’. Paul is saying the cross of Christ has (for him at least) killed his pride. In other words, Paul’s anti-God state of mind has been crucified. He no longer thinks of himself as not needing God. He now thinks and acts with reference to what God wants.
Taking his cue from Paul, Isaac Watts (like C.S. Lewis) had the insight to see that the cross cuts to the core of the matter – human pride. When we face the cross of Jesus squarely and honestly it humbles us.
To put it another way; if we think of our pride as a house of cards (something we have spent a lot of time carefully constructing, but which isn’t very stable or resilient), then Christ’s sacrifice on the cross flattens our house of cards.
The second part of verse 2 of the song continues the theme of ruthlessly crucifying our pride: All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. This line reminds me of what Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 1:18-31. Let me read you read some of the verses from this passage of Scripture…
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
… 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong…
31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
What the world values and holds in high esteem: things like youth, beauty, wealth, skill, success, popularity, performance, winning and so on, these are of little eternal consequence. What really matters in the end is faith expressing itself in love [4], as demonstrated by Christ’s obedience to God in going to the cross.
You know, as we grow older and more self-aware, we come to understand the paradox that our strengths contain the very seeds of our weaknesses.
What are the vain things that charm you the most?
If verses 1 & 2 of the song seek to crucify pride, then verse 3 of the hymn shows us what we see when we survey the wondrous cross …
See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet? Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
This verse sets our minds on Jesus, bleeding out on a cross; a crown of thorns on his head, nails through his hands and feet. Sorrow mixed with love speaks of self-giving love. It also suggests not just the physical pain Jesus endured but also the mental anguish and grief Jesus suffered over his separation from God.
The final verse of the song indicates what our response should be…
Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.
This verse speaks of the fact that Jesus was the only one worthy to make the sacrifice to atone for our sin. Nothing else in all creation could have sufficed. When we understand that God did not hold back even his own Son for us, our conscience requires us to not hold anything back from God.
We know from the Law of Moses and from Jesus’ teaching that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind. Jesus shows us, by his example, what that means and through the cross he provides the motivation to love God.
Now it needs to be acknowledged that we are all on a journey with this. While the final verse of the song holds up an ideal response, we don’t always manage to love God with our all. Wherever you are at on the journey I encourage you to not give up. Keep walking with Jesus. God is gracious and he understands our intentions are often bigger than our capacity to deliver (like a child at a smorgasbord whose eyes are bigger than his belly).
Peter was adamant that he would never abandon Jesus and yet, within a few hours, his enthusiasm was drained and he denied Jesus three times to save his own neck. Like Peter, we have all fallen short of our own best intentions. The good news is that Jesus did not condemn Peter. Jesus restored Peter and Jesus wants to restore us too.
When we survey the cross we face mystery. We cannot understand the full meaning of the cross of Christ. We can only stand in silence before it, acknowledge its wonder, and submit to its power.” [5]
Let’s do that now as we sing in our bubbles, When I survey the wondrous cross…
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God:
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.
See from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet?
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my All.
[1] Stanley Grenz, ‘Theology for the Community of God’, page 340
[2] C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.115
[3] C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.114
[4] Galatians 5:6b
[5] Stanley Grenz, ‘Theology for the Community of God’, page 340
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