Forgotten Honour - Easter Hymn: 'O Sacred Head Now Wounded' Part 2

Back in March 2021, I wrote a blog about this hymn. I mentioned that 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 continues to be a hymn that deeply impacts me. Easter is only a month away, and as I listened to the morning worship service at St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney and heard it again, I was once again drawn to its words.

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

In the previous blog I mentioned how all those years ago I had not realised the significance and weight of the words of the first verse, although the tune that was deeply etched in my mind had brought me back to the hymn again and again.

 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.

It is easy to sing familiar hymns and songs, especially at Easter, without thinking deeply about the extent of what they mean. 

This first verse speaks of Jesus' humiliation in going from glory to gory!

But this time I want to look also at the 2nd verse.

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered

was all for sinners' gain;

mine, mine was the transgression,

but Thine the deadly pain.

Lo, here I fall, my Savior!

'Tis I deserve Thy place;

look on me with Thy favor,

vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

The hymnwriter from almost 1000 years ago recognised something we tend to overlook. The first line speaks of that which Jesus suffered was for our (the sinner's) gain. But what did he just say Jesus suffered as a loss that would be for our gain?

He has just spent a whole verse describing Jesus' suffering of shame; his loss of glory.

His loss - of glory, was for our gain - of glory. His endurance of shame was so that we could escape the everlasting pain of shame (Daniel 12:2). The pain is not primarily the physical pain (though that was no small part of the crucifixion), but the main pain was the shame that fills the writer's mind in the first verse. We are the ones who have shamefully fallen short of God's standard, as evidenced in our transgressions of God's law. We are the ones who deserve the shame punishment for that. But instead of us, Jesus bore that immeasurable shame. We deserved the place and punishment that Jesus was given!

However, what is it that Jesus' bearing of the shame (that was due to us) accomplishes for us?…It is, so that now, God can look on us with favour and grant us his grace instead of delivering us up to our pre-destined eternal shame. What is this grace then? It is what is given to us in place of the punishment deserving shame we should've had - it is the underserved gift of glory. It is the glory given to us, so that as the hymn goes on to say at the end, when our time on earth comes concludes, we can have the confidence that:

 'for he who dies believing

dies safely in Thy love.' 

Because Jesus bore our shame, we are blessed with the opportunity to put our trust in him and not face eternal shame when this earthly body finishes its duration. Our eternal shame is cancelled in Christ, if we trust in his already sufficient bearing of our shame. In Christ, our trajectory is changed from being on the road of shame that goes on to eternal shame, to being on the road of new undeserved glory given as a gift - the gift of grace. Jesus died in shame so that we could live in glory. It is a gift of glory that enables us to be made new and holy in union with Christ. As Christians, we are now those who give glory to God as the response of worship we were created to give. And that response begins with praise and thankfulness and the desire to love Christ forever for the immensity of God's gift to us in Christ.

…as the hymn's verse 3 says:

What language shall I borrow

to thank Thee, dearest Friend,

for this, Thy dying sorrow,

Thy pity without end?

O make me Thine forever!

And should I fainting be,

Lord, let me never, never

outlive my love for Thee.

Jesus becomes our dearest Friend, because he paid the greatest price. In English we sometimes call the most expensive thing the 'dearest' thing. And this is exactly the situation here. Jesus' is our dearest friend, because he valued us as dearest to him and gave his all for us. So thus should we value him as our dearest and give our all for him in love and full devotion in obedience and honour. This begins with basic but deep heart-thankfulness. His gift of undeserved honour (favour), in other words his grace, should elicit our honour toward him and in other words a lived-out gratefulness…a life of thankfulness…of life of 'gracias'.

The author's view of salvation was a salvation from shame to honour that should thus elicit the deepest levels of love and thankfulness forever.  Maybe our depths of love for Jesus are weak, because our understanding of the depths of shame he bore for us, are weak. Maybe our weak understanding in the church today comes from a weak (or non-existent for some) awareness of the shame context of our sin, Jesus' death on the cross, and thus our salvation. If we fail to realise the shame context, we will fail to recognise and live in the honour context of the grace we have been given and the gratefulness that should characterise us. 

Let me conclude with the words I concluded the part one blog…..

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

and then this Easter sing with me the triumphant, hope and joy filled final verse sung at St Andrew's Cathedral this morning, written by their Choir Director Mr Ross Cobb:

When dying, Lord have mercy

When I from life must leave.

And for my final journey,

O Jesus, to me cleave.

These eyes shall close in longing,

While earth's vain shadows flee,

And see in Heav'ns bright morning,

The Christ who died for me.

Forgotten honour: Isaac Watts

Photocredit from Hymnary.org

Isaac Watts was born in Southhampton in England in 1674, the eldest of nine children. By age seven he was already writing poems. He was taught Greek, Hebrew and Latin as part of his childhood education.

In 1702 he became a Pastor in London, after preaching his first sermon at age 24. He struggled with his health over his lifetime but continued to preach and write as much as his health would permit.

He composed his first hymn for worship at age 20 and has been called 'the greatest of hymn-writers', not least because he wrote over 800 hymns before dying in 1748.

He is another prominent Christian of the past who readily understood the reality of shame and honour (not only guilt), in relation to our salvation and life as a Christian. 

Here are some examples below to highlight this in his hymns - with my additions of bold italic type.

I have chosen several!….(although this is but a small sample of his over 800 hymns)…which give us multiple opportunities to contemplate our God and Saviour and our walk with him, in the light of honour and shame dynamics which we often overlook.

And as you come to the end of the samples I chose, maybe take time as we come towards Easter, to reflect on the final line at the end about our Saviour Jesus Christ:  "He bought salvation for the poor and bore the sinner's shame".

***

1 I lift my soul to God,

My trust is in His name;

Let not my foes that seek my blood

Still triumph in my shame.

2 From the first dawning light

Till the dark evening rise,

For Thy salvation, Lord, I wait

With ever longing eyes.

3 Remember all Thy grace,

And lead me in Thy truth;

Forgive the sins of riper days,

And follies of my youth.

The Lord is just and kind,

The meek shall learn his ways,

And every humble sinner find

The methods of his grace.

For his own goodness' sake

He saves my soul from shame:

He pardons, though my guilt be great,

Through my Redeemer's name.

***

1 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.

2 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 through his blood.

3 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?

4 Were the whole realm of nature mine,

that were a present far too small.

Love so amazing, so divine,

demands my soul, my life, my all. 

...'crowns' are correlated with honour and when we consider this, this hymn is all about Jesus the prince of glory [honour], who for us, put aside his heavenly honour, to be 'honoured' by the shame/humiliation of a 'thorns crown'. Though the words 'honour' and 'shame' aren't used, the concepts fill this hymn: "the Prince of glory died"; "pour contempt on all my pride"; "boast save in the death of Christ"; "thorns compose so rich a crown"

***

…On the need to ponder the doctrine of the fall of man in the context of shame….this hymn which seems to have two versions, both begin with….

Backward we look with grief and shame, 

On our first father's fall

On all the race what ruin came,

Was death alike to all

or 

Backward we look with grief and shame

On our original;

On all the race what ruin came

Through our first father's fall!

***

1 Behold the glories of the Lamb

amidst His Father's throne!

amidst His Father's throne!

Prepare new honors for His name,

and songs before unknown,

and songs before unknown

***

1 Deep in the dust before Thy throne,

Our guilt and our disgrace we own;

Great God! we own th'unhappy name

Whence sprung our nature and our shame.

2 But whilst our spirits, filled with awe,

Behold the terrors of Thy law,

We sing the honors of Thy grace,

That sent to save our ruined race.

3 We sing Thine everlasting Son,

Who joined our nature to His own:

The second Adam, from the dust,

Raises the ruins of the first.

4 Where sin did reign, and death abound,

There have the sons of Adam found

Abounding life; there glorious grace

Reigns through the Lord our righteousness.

***

We give honour to Christ who ransomed our lives with his own and died to make our peace

Missions is about spreading the honour of God, so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

1 Father of glory, to thy name

Immortal praise we give,

Who dost an act of grace proclaim,

And bid'st us, rebels, live!

2 Immortal honor to the Son,

Who makes thine anger cease;

Our lives he ransomed with his own,

And died to make our peace.

3 To the Almighty Spirit be

Immortal glory given;

Whose influence brings us near to thee,

And trains us up for heaven.

4 Let men, with their united voice,

Adore th' eternal God;

And spread his honors, and their joys,

Through nations far abroad.

5 Let faith and love and duty join

One general song to raise;

And saints in earth and heaven combine

In harmony and praise.

***

1 Give to the Lord, ye sons of fame,

Give to the Lord renown and pow'r;

Ascribe due honors to his name,

And his eternal might adore.

***

1 I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,

or to defend his cause,

maintain the honor of his Word,

the glory of his cross.

2 Jesus, my God! I know his name,

his name is all my trust;

nor will he put my soul to shame,

nor let my hope be lost.

3 Firm as his throne his promise stands,

and he can well secure

what I've committed to his hands

'til the decisive hour.

4 Then will he own my worthless name

before his Father's face,

and in the new Jerusalem

appoint my soul a place.

***

I'll speak the honors of my King,

His form divinely fair;

None of his sons of mortal race

May with the Lord compare.

***

'Twas for Thy sake, eternal God,

Thy Son sustained that heavy load

Of base reproach and sore disgrace,

And shame defiled His sacred face.

The Jews, His brethren and His kin,

Abused the Man that checked their sin;

While He fulfilled Thy holy laws,

They hate Him, but without a cause.

My Father's house, said He, was made

A place for worship, not for trade;

Then scattering all their gold and brass,

He scourged the merchants from the place.

Zeal for the temple of His God

Consumed His life, exposed His blood;

Reproaches at Thy glory thrown

He felt, and mourned them as His own.

His friends forsook, His followers fled,

While foes and arms surround His head;

They curse Him with a slanderous tongue,

And the false judge maintains the wrong.

His life they load with hateful lies,

And charge His lips with blasphemies;

They nail Him to the shameful tree:

There hung the Man that died for me.

Wretches with hearts as hard as stones

Insult His piety and His groans;

Gall was the food they gave Him there,

And mocked His thirst with vinegar.

But God beheld, and from His throne

Marks out the men that hate His Son;

The hand that raised Him from the dead,

Shall pour the vengeance on their head

***

Father, I sing Thy wondrous grace,

I bless my Savior's name;

He bought salvation for the poor,

And bore the sinner's shame.