Meditating on Christ’s sufferings
Given the reticence and reserve with which the NT dwells on the physical aspects of Christ’s sufferings, it is certainly possible for Christians themselves to dwell too much on them.
F.F. Bruce comments on this subject in his fascinating book, Answers To Questions (p249f).
He contrasts this, by Charles Wesley…
1. O Love divine, what has thou done!
The immortal God hath died for me!
The Father’s coeternal Son
bore all my sins upon the tree.
Th’ immortal God for me hath died:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!
2. Is crucified for me and you,
to bring us rebels back to God.
Believe, believe the record true,
ye all are bought with Jesus’ blood.
Pardon for all flows from his side:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!
3. Behold him, all ye that pass by,
the bleeding Prince of life and peace!
Come, sinners, see your Savior die,
and say, “Was ever grief like his?”
Come, feel with me his blood applied:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!
…with this, by F.W. Faber:-
1. O come and mourn with me awhile;
See Mary calls us to her side;
O come and let us mourn with her.
Jesus, our Love, is crucified.
2. Have we no tears to shed for Him,
While soldiers scoff and Jews deride?
Ah, look how patiently He hangs.
Jesus, our Love, is crucified.
3. How fast His feet and hands are nailed;
His blessed tongue with thirst is tied;
His failing eyes are blind with blood.
Jesus, our Love, is crucified.
4. O love of God! O sin of man!
In this dread act your strength is tried;
And victory remains with love,
For He, our Love, is crucified.
Bruce writes:-
It is a good exercise to compare the two, and to dsicover why Wesley’s is so superbly effective, not a foot wrong, not a word out of place, and why the latter – well, why the latter could be described by Sir Robert Anderson as displaying “the mawkish irreverence of the love-song, combined with the revolting materialism of “the religion of the shambles”.’