Categories: uncategorized
Date: 17 January 2008 07:04:26
Backburner has questioned my choice of "Jesus Wept" by Ralph McTell for my worship playlist and asked me to explain it.
Well, whilst I accept that there are bits of this song which I don't agree with, particularly with regard to the denying of the miracles overall I find it particularly useful as my chosen of reading of the lyrics uses the song to focus on the mix between the humanity and divinity of Jesus. Now I know this is probably the opposite of what the writer intended, because as Backburner points out it does take a very humanistic view of Jesus.
So what are my reasons for finding it so useful to connect to God. Well firstly, I come from a tradition which has deconstructed the Trinity and elevated Jesus focusing almost exclusively on his divinity, forgetting the depth of his humanity (unless they are using the line "Jesus faced every temptation you do"). So on one level I find it really useful to reminded of what Jesus faced as a human on Good Friday. This song is one of the few I know which addresses the fact Jesus did have a choice whether to die for my sin and actually consciously made that choice. Also it doesn't sentimentalise the pain and confusion which Jesus must have faced in that situation.
On another level it reminds me of Jesus divinity and the fact when he chose to die on the cross He, as Lord of History, would know not only the saving the power of the act but also how the religion it would spawn would be misused by sinful man to justify their acts of atrocity. Now He also would, I believe, have understood that those acts would have been committed whether they were in the name of Christianity or something else and that is why he still felt able to go through with the act. However, it gives me an awareness of the pain involved in being the Lord of History aswell as the fluffy aspects of it we focus on in church. It also reminds me he was fulfilling the scriptures when he went to the cross.
So there you have it basically, through listening to this song I become more thankful to God because I get a greater understanding of the emotional pain that must have been involved when Jesus was crucified for humanity (including my sin) and the turmoil that must have been involved in making the choice to say "yet not my will but yours". Again in my tradition we just tend to focus on how awful the physical pain of the crucifixion was but we don't address all the other aspects of pain we put Jesus through - this song does that.