You came from heaven to earth to show the way
From the earth to the cross, my debt to pay
From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky
Lord, I lift your name on high
Isaiah 9:2-7
John 14:5-7
Hilary term is interesting in that it neatly spans the two (arguably) most important seasons in the Christian calendar - Christmas and Easter. The song that we just sung reflects a lot of my beliefs about both times of year, in a nice, short, simple form.
You came from heaven to earth to show the way
As was promised in Isaiah, God sent his messenger to his people. Not in the way the Israelites of the Old Testament might have expected though. The messenger came not to the chosen people of old, but the new chosen people - all of God's children, all of the world. The messenger whom he sent was not another prophet, but himself - God was made flesh and came to the earth. Who better to show us the way to God, than God himself?
From the earth to the cross, my debt to pay
It can often be easy to talk about Jesus' death on the cross in abstract terms. After all, it's not something which we have day-to-day experience of, and it's the reasons why he dies that are most often discussed. But consider what it must have been like - your back had been torn apart by the lashes of the whip. Sweat running into the wounds, the heavy cross rubs against them with every step, constantly re-opening the weals and causing fresh pain. Then being lifted onto the upright cross, your hands held flat against it, and feeling the point of a nail being driven into the flesh of your forearm, the whole structure shuddering with each blow of the hammer. Sorry to be so graphic this early in the day, but I want us to remember that when Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me." The way was not easy.
Jesus was innocent. Not only of the crimes of which he was accused, but completely so. He was without sin. And yet he endured more suffering than most of us will even be able to imagine. This he did freely, willingly. Even when he prayed and was close to despair, his words were "...not my will but yours." By submitting to God's will, he gave us eternal life.
From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky
Lord, I lift your name on high
And here is what we call the mystery of faith - Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Almost everything that had happened until now in the Gospels we might be able to explain away without having to say for certain that Jesus was the son of God. I'm sure people will want to argue with me over that, and if so I'd probably agree that you were right! But still, this is the part of the story where we can no longer argue. The Lord Jesus Christ, God made man, having died and been buried, rose again to life on the third day. Then he was taken up to heaven, where he sits at God's right hand.
Lord, I lift your name on high
Well, I find this the easiest part to explain, if not to actually do. If we accept that Jesus was God made human, that He came to earth to show us His love for us, that he died on the cross to save us, and now He reigns once more in heaven, then I can see no choice open to us but to praise God, and to 'lift his name on high'.
Michael Stewart
8th March 2002
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E-mail: michael.stewart@physics.org