Forgotten Honour - Easter Hymns 2

At the Secondary School I attended I was part of the 'Sacred Choir' and at almost every Easter we sang the hymn 'O Sacred Head Now Wounded' and I often felt its accompanying mournful tune so helpfully re-inforced the significance and weightiness of Christ's death.

It was written by Bernard of Clairvaux, abbot, and doctor, a Frenchman of the middle ages, born in 1091. It was then translated to German around 1660 by Lutheran hymnwriter Paul Gerhardt and then English around 1850 by James Alexander, son of the first Professor of Princeton Seminary.

But I must admit that my mind glossed over not only one of the words in the first lines - 'shame', but I also failed to appreciate the impact of the meaning of the whole first verse that focuses on the context of shame.

 O sacred Head, now wounded,

with grief and shame weighed down,

now scornfully surrounded

with thorns, thine only crown!

O sacred Head, what glory,

what bliss till now was thine!

Yet, though despised and gory,

I joy to call thee mine.

Are you like me, and you sing these Easter songs without thinking deeply about the extent of what they mean. Since 'shame' has not been focused on in much of the Christian teaching that fills the pages of our Christian books, commentaries and study bibles, we are apt to also slip over the important meaning bound up in these concepts.

We tend to think in terms of Jesus being weighed down with our guilt, but here the hymnwriter says he was weighed down with 'grief and shame'. We might think of a crown of thorns being physically painful, but the writer says such a crown was about being scorned - shamed, ridiculed, mocked.

But then he contrasts the image of what was humanly seen with what was being eternally accomplished…..the wounds won glory [honour] and the grief and shame became bliss, so that though it all looked and felt horrible and despicable [shameful], we rejoice because it brought us reconciliation with God, by being counted in the Son!

Can you join with me to sing 'though despised and gory, I joy to call thee mine'!