the way out

there are words in songs that we often get wrong, and getting it wrong can change the whole message of the lyric. here are some faves:

Great is my faithfulness, Lord unto thee...

(from 'Great Is Thy Faithfulness')

Then sings thy soul, my Savior God to me: How great thou art...

(from 'How Great Thou Art')

He arose a victim from the dark domain...’

(from 'Up From The Grave He Arose)

the first couple are just ridiculously self-centred, unconsciously betraying an egocentricity that probably needs to be explored on its own in a separate post. however, the third one says something different about our worldview and, more importantly, how we see ourselves and Christ as victims in this big mean place.

Jesus was NOT victimized.

Jesus stepped into this calamity with a spoiler alert:

he knew where the story of redemption had to climax.

that's the big difference between being the victim and the victor...

Jesus wasn't a helpless puppet.

Jesus was the man in charge.

one of the most dangerous things about films like The Passion of the Christ becoming more frank about how Jesus was treated is that it becomes easy to forget that Jesus was the one in charge... we are so emotionally moved by the lamb being led really roughly to the slaughter that we lose track of the ultimate victory that God is orchestrating there.

but it's an easy mistake.

we often forget that God is God.

once again, we are dealing with the scandalous and confusing message of God's grace on human terms and, in our pathos, find ourselves occasionally even feeling sorry for God, as though the almighty creator of the universe was some big old guy sitting on a cloud somewhere all depressed because he is constantly misunderstood, mulling over the unfaithfulness to the point of murder of his crowned of creation and wondering where he went wrong as a diety. our post-Genesis3 understanding of the way things are makes it difficult for us to actually see what’s going on because our perspective is so clouded by the inescapability of sin and its wages.

and yet untying the knots of our fallenness is the whole point of the resurrection.

Up from the grave he arose with a mighty triumph o’er his foes

He arose a victor from the dark domain
And he’ll live forever with his Saints to reign
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah, Christ arose!

(Robert Lowry)