Good Friday: What Wondrous Love is This? | When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Good Friday: What Wondrous Love is This? | When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Liturgy Lessons: Good Friday | April 14, 2017

“The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life.
It cannot be grasped by reason and memory only, but it is fully understood when it possesses
the whole soul and penetrates to the inner recesses of the heart.”

–John Calvin, Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life

“We can use art and music, like anything else on this planet, to distract ourselves from the hard realities of our lives, or our neighbors’ lives. Distraction can become a form of rebellion against God. We can permit our intensely psychological connection with the artistic work to replace our spiritual connection with God. The choral performance is so ‘divine,’ the poetry so sumptuous, that we feel sated with the artistry. We find it easier to stop with the ‘buzz’
than to allow the art to direct our soul to a deeper knowledge of God.”

–David Taylor, For the Beauty of the Church

One of the most overlooked and astounding verses from the creation account occurs just after the Lord forms Adam from the dust, breathes into his nostrils, and then places him in the garden. “And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” Pleasant to the sight. Not just practical sustenance, the food was both nourishing AND beautiful. Then, of course, he created Eve, who must have been so beautiful to Adam because it inspired him with the first bit of poetry in all of scripture (Genesis 2:23). Fast-forward to the song of Moses in Exodus 15, and in the second verse we find a lyric that may be translated as something like this: “This is my God, and I will beautify him with praises.” And then there is Noah, who received a rainbow message in the sky instead of black and white letters. It wasn’t a text message of “no more floods,” but a beautiful arc of every color in the known spectrum emblazoned across the canvas. God seems to take great delight in beauty. Indeed, those of us who are privileged to live in the Pacific Northwest have a daily reminder of the beauty of God’s creation, by which we can clearly see his “divine nature” (Romans 12:20). All things bright and beautiful, especially the arts, are signs of God’s goodness.

Throughout the history of the Western world, Christ’s passion narrative has inspired some of the most timeless works of art and music. Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” and Rembrandt’s “Descent from the Cross” are so monumental and ministerial that they defy description. But they were not composed nor painted to be admired as masterpieces. They were designed to enrich the mind, enchant the heart, and enrapture the soul with their source material, namely Jesus, our suffering savior, the very embodiment of beauty and emblem of love. C.S. Lewis reminds us of this great Christian goal of all art: when eyes and ears are admiring and beholding the beautiful, they would inspire heart and mind to “run back up the sunbeam to the sun.” This frees music and art up to be tools for deeper worship rather than objects of worship themselves. Our artistically choreographed liturgy for Good Friday is designed as an extended mediation on the crucifixion of Christ. In response to the weight and wonder of cross, we seek out beautiful expressions of sorrow, praise, awe, and gratitude. Every element—every single one—is seeking to till the soil of the heart so that, through the husbandry of the Holy Spirit, seeds of Christ-exalting adoration may be deeply planted therein. We choose to beautify our services in prayerful hope that the Lord would use those good artistic gifts to surprise, shock, sow, slay, soothe, and sing in our hearts. May the fruit of it all be a sweeter enjoyment of Christ, for His glory and the beauty of His bride, the church.

What Wondrous Love is This?
Text: Anonymous
Tune: American Folk Hymn (Southern Harmony, 1835)

This minor and modal tune, based on a six-tone scale, is one of the most famous from the mid-19th century timeless Appalachian hymnal Southern Harmony. An anonymous melody, impossible to trace to its source, it was passed down aurally from generation to generation. It’s imminently hummable and seems both ponderous and spontaneous in its structure. I imagine the hundreds of sweet moments between parent and child at either bedtime or around the campfire where this hymn was sung together. Poorly clothed immigrants, isolated in the hills of the new world, struggling to come to grips with lost hopes and unrealized dreams, formed a haunting and sorrowful beauty in their culture of worship and music. The first verse of this hymn is a question without an answer. The latter three verses are full of defiant and dogged hope, rooted in the cross and realized in heaven.

Link to sheet music: http://www.hymnary.org/media/fetch/97541
Link to “folk” recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_48iI1RBtnc
Link to modern recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP0tEceh8Bg

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Text: Isaac Watts (1707)
Tune: Lowell Mason (1824)

A great hymn is not produced through formula. Poetic and musical elements can be analyzed and copied, but there is something almost mystical about a timeless hymn. “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” is considered the crowning achievement of Isaac Watts, the “father of English hymnody.” At our last hymn sing, we covered some of the greatest hymns in our entire arsenal. It was this one, however, that had the greatest force of impact for me. The text perfectly balances the objective with the subjective. Its poetry is a delicate dance between theological truths about the “Prince of Glory” and emotional response to His supreme sacrifice. The last line of text could be used as a thesis for this entire liturgy lesson, or even as a credo for all of Christian life: “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all!”

The tune, written by Lowell Mason, consists of only five notes, and is based on a Gregorian chant. It is brilliant in its simplicity. In our Good Friday liturgy, as we sing “sorrow and love flow mingled down,” listen for the “heartbeat” that begins, continues after the verse is done, and slowly dies out as the Christ candle is removed. As we meditate on the cross, I can think of no better hymn to steer our thoughts and stir our hearts than this one. After a long pause to ponder Christ’s passion, we end our entire service with the final verse of this hymn. And, in recognition of the resurrection to come and the hope that the cross brings, we lift our final verse up a whole step from the original key.

Link to Sheet Music: http://www.hymnary.org/media/fetch/96097

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