For a number of years I went with my Aunt Martha to the Palmer House on Good Friday to attend the three hour service. I don’t remember anything about the sermons. (There were seven of them at the service.) I do remember the music. We always sang Johann Rist’s 17th century hymn “O Darkest Woe.”*

O darkest woe!
Ye tears, forth flow!
Has earth so sad a wonder,
That the Father’s only Son
Now is buried yonder!

I supposed most people find it a gloomy hymn, but I think that’s appropriate for Good Friday.  As far as I know, only Lutherans sing this hymn, so it’s never going to make the top 100 favorite hymns. Yet I find it moving, especially the tender shift that takes place in the last stanza.

O Jesus blest,
My help and rest,
With tears I now entreat Thee:
Make me love Thee to the last,
Till in heav’n I greet Thee!

This change from Jesus’ death to our death is a reminder that Christ died for me. His death was not just one of thousands at the hands of a ruthless oppressor, but a death for my sake, a death that gives me eternal life. As I contemplate that sacrifice, I pray that I might love my Lord and Savior until death at last takes me. I live this life in the hope he gives.

Read 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne  

*James Gauen, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Wood River, Illinois