Rebecca McLaughlin on Easter

Every month, The Good Book Company make available digital versions of one of their books at no charge. This month (April 2023) it’s Is Easter Unbelievable? Four Questions Everyone Should Ask about the Resurrection Story by Rebecca McLaughlin, a short but excellent exploration of the reality and significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection, which is available in exchange for an email address here.

Jesus, the Crucified, Pleads for Me

For Good Friday:

Jesus, the Crucified, pleads for me,

While he is nailed to the shameful tree.

Scorned and forsaken, derided and cursed,

See how his enemies do their worst!

Yet, in the midst of the torture and shame,
Jesus, the Crucified, breathes my name:

Wonder of wonders, oh, how can it be?

Jesus, the Crucified, pleads for me!

Lord, I have left thee, I have denied,

Followed the world in my selfish pride;

Lord, I have joined in the hateful cry,

Slay him, away with him, crucify!

Lord, I have done it, oh! ask me not how;

Woven the thorns for thy tortured brow;

Yet in his pity, so boundless and free,

Jesus, the Crucified, pleads for me!

‘Though thou hast left me and wandered away,

Chosen the darkness instead of the day;

Though thou art covered with many a stain,

Though thou hast wounded me oft and again;

Though thou hast followed thy wayward will;

Yet, in my pity, I love thee still.’

Wonder of wonders it ever must be!
Jesus, the Crucified, pleads for me!

Jesus is dying, in agony sore,
Jesus is suffering more and more,
Jesus is bowed with the weight of his woe,
Jesus is faint with each bitter throe.
Jesus is bearing it all in my stead,

Pity incarnate for me has bled;

Wonder of wonders it ever must be!

Jesus, the Crucified, pleads for me!

William John Sparrow-Simpson (1860–1952)

Looking at the Cross

For this year’s Good Friday, here is one of John Newton’s lesser-known hymns. This was published in the Olney Hymns, 1779, Bk. ii., No. 57, under the title ‘Looking at the Cross’.

In evil long I took delight,

Unawed by shame or fear,

Till a new object struck my sight,

And stopped my wild career:

I saw One hanging on a Tree,

In agonies and blood,

Who fix’d His languid eyes on me,

As near His Cross I stood.

Sure never, till my latest breath,

Can I forget that look:

It seem’d to charge me with His death,

Though not a word He spoke:

My conscience felt and owned the guilt,

And plunged me in despair,

I saw my sins His blood had spilt,

And helped to nail Him there.

Alas! I knew not what I did!

But now my tears are vain;

Where shall my trembling soul be hid?

For I the Lord had slain!

A second look He gave, which said,

‘I freely all forgive;

This blood is for thy ransom paid;

I die, that thou may’st live.’

Thus, while His death my sin displays,

In all its blackest hue,

Such is the mystery of grace,

It seals my pardon too.

With pleasing grief, and mournful joy,

My spirit now is fill’d,

That I should such a life destroy,

Yet live by Him I kill’d.

Resolved #5: To Boast in the Cross of Christ

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. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule – to the Israel of God.

Galatians 6:14-16

We might well resolve to do the things Paul calls on us in Galatians to do – to stand firm in our freedom, to walk with the Spirit, to fulfil Christ’s law, to do good to all people – but where, when all is done, will our confidence finally lie? For Paul, not in our own achievements or the approval of others, but in the cross of Christ.

Removed as we are from the first-century world, where crucifixion was looked upon as shameful by Jew and pagan alike, it’s not easy to feel the scandal of that claim. And yet, the cross is not something Paul returns to only when he has to, and then in slight embarrassment, but is at the centre of his message about Christ. For it was there that Christ became a curse for us (3:13), delivering us from slavery (4:5). And it is there, Paul says, that our old self has been crucified (5:24), echoing his earlier testimony that he has been ‘crucified with Christ’, and that he lives now ‘by faith in the Son of God’ who loved him and gave himself for him (2:20).

As Michael J. Gorman explores in his Cruciformity: Paul’s Narrative Spirituality of the Cross (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), Christ’s death not only provides the source of our salvation but the shape of our salvation, such that our daily life ratifies our core allegiance to Jesus – as we take up our cross to follow him.

More than this, however, the effects of the cross are cosmic in their extent, reaching beyond individuals to embrace heaven and earth – bringing about ‘a new creation’ no less. Small wonder, then, that whatever privileges might have given grounds for honour for God’s people in the past are nothing compared to what really counts. Circumcision is the specific example Paul mentions, though it doesn’t take much effort to imagine other ‘badges of honour’ we like to wear. But none of them can compare with belonging to the new age that God has begun through the cross of Christ.

And with that comes peace and mercy for the whole family of Abraham – Jew and Gentile alike – to all who ‘keep in step with’ this rule, whose identity is now derived from the new creation God has brought about through the Spirit and in Christ.

Resolved #5: To Boast in the Cross of Christ

This is a lightly-edited re-run of one of a post from early 2011.

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. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule – to the Israel of God.

Galatians 6:14-16

We might well resolve to do the things Paul calls on us in Galatians to do – to stand firm in our freedom, to walk with the Spirit, to fulfil Christ’s law, to do good to all people – but where, when all is done, will our confidence finally lie? For Paul, not in our own achievements or the approval of others, but in the cross of Christ.

Removed as we are from the first-century world, where crucifixion was looked upon as shameful by Jew and pagan alike, it’s not easy to feel the scandal of that claim. And yet, the cross is not something Paul returns to only when he has to, and then in slight embarrassment, but is at the centre of his message about Christ. For it was there that Christ became a curse for us (3:13), delivering us from slavery (4:5). And it is there, Paul says, that our old self has been crucified (5:24), echoing his earlier testimony that he has been ‘crucified with Christ’, and that he lives now ‘by faith in the Son of God’ who loved him and gave himself for him (2:20).

As Michael J. Gorman explores in his Cruciformity: Paul’s Narrative Spirituality of the Cross (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), Christ’s death not only provides the source of our salvation but the shape of our salvation, such that our daily life ratifies our fundamental allegiance to Jesus – as we take up our cross to follow him.

More than this, however, the effects of the cross are cosmic in proportion, reaching beyond individuals to embrace heaven and earth – bringing about ‘a new creation’ no less. Small wonder, then, that whatever privileges might have given grounds for honour for God’s people in the past (circumcision being the specific example here), are nothing compared to what really counts – belonging to the new age that God has begun through the cross of Christ.

And with that comes peace and mercy for the whole family of Abraham, Jew and Gentile alike, to all who ‘keep in step with’ this rule, whose identity is now derived from the new creation God has brought about through the Spirit and in Christ.

O Perfect Life of Love

For this year’s Good Friday, based on John 19:30 – ‘It is finished.’

O perfect life of love!

All, all is finished now,

All that He left His throne above

To do for us below.

No work is left undone

Of all the Father willed;

His toil, His sorrows, one by one,

The Scriptures have fulfilled.

No pain that we can share

But He has felt its smart;

All forms of human grief and care

Have pierced that tender heart.

And on His thorn-crowned head

And on His sinless soul

Our sins in all their guilt were laid,

That he might make us whole.

In perfect love He dies;

For me He dies, for me.

O all-atoning Sacrifice,

I cling by faith to Thee.

In ev’ry time of need,

Before the judgment throne,

Thy work, O Lamb of God, I’ll plead

Thy merits, not mine own.

Yet work, O Lord, in me,

As Thou for me hast wrought;

And let my love the answer be

To grace Thy love has brought.

Henry W. Baker, 1821-77

Who’s to Blame?

I contributed this week’s ‘Connecting with Culture’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. It was written before David Cameron’s Easter message to Christians via Premier Christianity on Wednesday, which I would have liked to address, though I think the below – with its emphasis on the cross – does so anyway.

‘Blame is just a lazy person’s way of making sense of chaos.’ So says Janet Drummond, the matriarch of Douglas Coupland’s novel, All Families are Psychotic. ‘It’s nobody’s fault. It’s chaos. Just chaos. Random numbers popping up in a cosmic Lotto draw.’

And yet, issues of blame – and requisite justice – will not go away. In spite of more than a million people signing a petition calling for his return, Jeremy Clarkson’s BBC contract will not be renewed following his ‘physical and verbal attack’ on a Top Gear producer. Lufthansa has confirmed that insurers have set aside $300m to cover claims following allegations that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed their Germanwings plane en route from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, killing all 150 people on board. Italy’s highest court has acquitted Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007, leaving the exact circumstances of her death an ongoing mystery. The celebrations surrounding Richard III’s burial at Leicester Cathedral prompted a backlash of accusations that a detestable tyrant was being treated like a saint.

On the face of it, the need to have someone to blame and for a sense of justice to be carried out assumes some kind of moral fabric to the universe. While such a stance has been argued from secular viewpoints, it makes complete sense from a Christian perspective. We fail and fall, actions have consequences, justice is necessary.

But Christians also hold that the ultimate predicament of human beings – rebellion against God and the judgment it deserves – is dealt with uniquely at the cross of Christ. Here is the place where justice is served and love is demonstrated in the same act, in the death of the one who took on himself that for which we would rightly be held accountable.

The work of the cross is applied personally, though not privately, for it is the place where the wisdom and power of God are demonstrated to the world. Jesus’ death is God’s chosen means of restoring ‘all things’, liberating men and women – and creation itself – from sin and bondage, with the guarantee that one day evil will be removed completely.

Meanwhile, that hope sustains our discipleship and mission as we seek to make sense of the cross and be shaped by it, knowing that we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.

All Ye That Pass By

For this year’s Good Friday...

All ye that pass by, to Jesus draw nigh:

To you is it nothing that Jesus should die?

Your ransom and peace, your surety He is:

Come, see if there ever was sorrow like His.

For what you have done His blood must atone:

The Father hath punished for you His dear Son.

The Lord, in the day of His anger, did lay

Your sins on the Lamb, and He bore them away.

He answered for all: O come at His call,

And low at His cross with astonishment fall!

But lift up your eyes at Jesus’ cries:

Impassive, He suffers; immortal, He dies.

He dies to atone for sins not His own;

Your debt He hath paid, and your work He hath done.

Ye all may receive the peace He did leave,

Who made intercession, My Father, forgive.

For you and for me He prayed on the tree:

The prayer is accepted, the sinner is free.

That sinner am I, who on Jesus rely,

And come for the pardon God cannot deny.

My pardon I claim; for a sinner I am,

A sinner believing in Jesus’ name.

He purchased the grace which now I embrace:

O Father, Thou know’st He hath died in my place.

His death is my plea; my Advocate see,

And hear the blood speak that hath answered for me.

My ransom He was when He bled on the cross;

And losing His life He hath carried my cause.

Charles Wesley 1707-88

Robert L. Plummer on John 13:1 and 19:30

There’s another helpful weekend video here from Robert L. Plummer, looking at the literary bracket between τέλος (telos) in John 13:1 (‘he loved them to the end’) and τετέλεσται (tetelestai) in 19:40 (‘It is finished’).

The Reason for the Season

[I contributed this week’s ‘Connecting with Culture’ from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. This one effectively served as the Institute’s Easter message, hence the greetings at the end.]

Last week’s London Evening Standard reported on a current trend by designers and fashion houses of using the symbol of the cross in clothes and accessories. Columnist Rosamund Urwin noted the irony that ‘the cross’s popularity with designers comes at a time when some Christians feel their right to wear their faith on their chests is under threat’.

Incidentally, it might be worth noting a similar irony surrounding the public outpouring of prayer for injured footballer, Fabrice Muamba, at a time when professional health workers and others have been censured for offering to pray for people in need.

As it happens, in his Easter message earlier this week, Prime Minister David Cameron said he welcomed something of a Christian ‘fightback’, referring specifically to defending the right to wear a crucifix and the overturned attempted banning of prayer before council meetings. In keeping with other recent speeches about Christianity, Cameron said he hopes that any fightback ‘will be based around values more than anything else’. ‘The values of the Bible, the values of Christianity are the values that we need – values of compassion, of respect, of responsibility, of tolerance’, said Cameron, even while conceding that such values are not confined to Christians or even the ‘religious’.

However, whilst noting that Easter is ‘the most important of the Christian festivals’, Cameron perhaps misses the significance of the Easter event which sustains the values he hopes the country will adopt.

Indeed, for all of us, Easter is a pertinent moment to remind ourselves of the danger of separating the teaching of Jesus from the larger framework of the gospels in which his teaching is set – accounts which move inexorably towards the events of Holy Week. This being the case, Jesus’ exhortations to ‘love your neighbour’ and ‘do to others what you would have them do to you’ are not disembodied commands, but are rooted in the story of the one who makes his way to Jerusalem to suffer and die for others and then rise again – historical events which entail a universal claim.

Christians follow Jesus not primarily because his teaching fits a convenient ‘values’ agenda, but because this side of his death and resurrection, ‘all authority in heaven and on earth’ has been given to him (Matthew 28:18).

This comes with Easter greetings from the LICC team, trusting that you may experience the love of our Father God, and the peace and joy that comes from knowing that Jesus has died and risen again.

Links

Rosmamund Urwin, ‘Sign of the Cross’, London Evening Standard (26 March 2012).

Mark Easton, ‘Prayers for Muamba’, BBC (19 March 2012).

‘Beyond Belief’ (BBC Radio 4, 2 April 2012) – on the symbol of the cross in contemporary society.

Prime Minister’s Easter Message (3 April 2012).

Nicholas Watt, ‘David Cameron “does God” at No 10 Easter event’, The Guardian (4 April 2012).

John Dickson on the Easter Story

Simon Smart, of Australia’s Centre for Public Christianity, interviews John Dickson (here in his capacity as New Testament scholar and ancient historian) about Easter, covering the date of Easter, Lent, the historicity of the resurrection narratives in the gospels, reasons for believing or not believing in Jesus’ resurrection, compelling evidence for the resurrection (including the early date of the testimony, dependence on the witness of women, the key eyewitnesses died for their claims) being a ‘plausible scenario’, the need to set the crucifixion and resurrection in the bigger story of the Bible (the Passover and temple being pointers to what is going on), what it means that Jesus died and rose again (that there is ‘something more’, the availability of eternal life, that God’s new creation is underway), and what enables us to believe and live today in the face of possible doubts.

Two videos, totaling just under 14 minutes, are available here.

Tyndale House Scholars on Evidence for Easter

Tyndale House has produced some short, helpful videos here (towards the foot of the page) outlining evidence related to Easter events – Jesus’ trial before Pilate, his crucifixion, and his resurrection.