The Grand Mystery

I love this time of year. I love the days and weeks around what we call Easter or Resurrection Day. It's more than Easter egg hunts and bunny rabbits and little ducklings. I got to tell you. Although all those things are kind of fun to do, aren't they? But I want to take you back in time just a few years well, 300 years. How about that? It's the early 1700s. It's a time when Britain, among others, is deeply involved in the slave trade. Going south from England down along the west coast of Africa to pick up tens of thousands of millions over time of slaves, take them across the Atlantic, that thing called the middle passage where many of them died in transit. And there they were sold and Roman cotton were picked up and brought back to the British Isles. They didn't have slaves in England. They had slaves in Latin America, in the Caribbean, and in the North America. And in the middle of that time when one of those guys was a fellow named John Newton who later wrote amazing grace. There was another fellow named William Wilberforce who was in Parliament in the late 1700s and led the charge to abolish slavery. But right in that mix were a couple of brothers. John and Charles, John and Charles Wesley and John was a preacher type of guy and he was non-traditional. He would have been considered a rebel by the state church of the day because he went out and took this good news resurrection message to the common people and he did it by preaching in fields and on the streets. And so he was sort of a scandal to those who were in power. They had a brother named Charles. He was a songwriter and sometimes good news is carried best with a melody put to it. I would say almost all the time that happens. I want to read you some thoughts by a fellow, not just any old fellow. He's a theology prof named Jay Todd Billings who teaches at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. He's part of a little study guide around Easter put out by Christianity Today magazine and in the notes you'll see reference to this. You can go and download this and I think you'll find it a fascinating study going forward. He's a little booklet with eight contributors who each contribute an article around Easter and this is part of his. Each of the articles is connected to a song and we'll do another one next week. This is what Jay Todd Billings writes. Charles Wesley, 1707 to 1788 gives us a song that overflows with this form of praise and exaltation and wonder as the writer of thousands of him's Wesley displays an exquisite love for language that reflects the extraordinary acumen of his first teacher, his mother Susanna, who took joy in languages including Latin, Greek and French along with English. And again, friends, this is both here. We're talking about 1700s English here. So you have a lot of these in the house. By the time of the writing of this hymn in 1738, the language of Scripture had been shaping Wesley's imagination for many years. Wesley had even studied the Church's theology formally leading to ordination in the Church of England in 1735. And yet his faith and awe burst forth like a waterfall of energy through the lyrics of and can it be reflecting the spirits moving in his life a new just three days before his brother John said his heart had been strangely warmed in his famous encounter at Alder's Gate Street. This hymn expresses old truths being perceived anew amid surprise and astonishment. Indeed, Wesley's words of faith are expressed in questions of, quote, unbelief, unquote, of incomprehension amazement. How could this be true? How could the sacrifice of Christ apply not only to others, but to me? This is how it reads or sings. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood, died he for me who caused his pain? For me, who him to death pursued, then Billings goes on and says, we do not approach Christ as innocent observers, but as sinners in needed deliverance. How could it be that in Christ we who made ourselves enemies of God become his friends? And then the songs repeated underlying question of vast and cosmic one, a question about the incarnation and the cross about Christmas and Easter. Amazing love. How can it be that thou my God should die for me? As I think about that song and read about it, I'm so moved. I did not know that song really until I got to graduate school in Wheaton, Illinois back in the early 60s. And we're in that big chapel space and people start singing this old hymn of the church of which I was not raised with that kind of music. I was brought up in more of a gospel kind of music. And the richness of the lyrics grabbed me. I want to read you just a couple of stanzas. Oh, my God, should die for me. Tis mystery all, the immortal dies. Who can explore his strange design? In vain, the firstborn serif tries to sound the depths of love divine. Tis mercy all. Let earth adore, let angel minds inquire no more. Amazing love. How can it be that thou my God should die for me? Billings goes on to say this. Charles Wesley's words are anything but careless and unbiblical because some folks took shots at him along the way. They are deeply theological, but to truly ask how the question he poses, how can it be that thou my God should die for me is also personally shocking. It brings us to a place where our words fall short or even poetry fall short. After the first time through the scandalous refrain, verse two encircles this mystery with stark beauty and I read it again. Tis mystery all, the immortal dies. Who can explore his strange design? In vain, the firstborn serif tries to sound the depths of love divine. Tis mercy all. Let earth adore, let angel minds inquire no more. Billings goes on who can explain or understand this astonishing love? The immortal God makes death his own in Jesus. Can the highest in the angels understand this? No. But in wonder we rightly adore this illuminating mystery that our expectations of God's kingship are confounded by the Lord who makes the mortal life of a servant his own, who delivers us with the love that is beyond our understanding. In our day, when we hear the word mystery, some of us think of an ominous type of hiddenness quote-unquote. Perhaps the government, a political party or family member is hiding something from us and thus there is mystery. But Wesley's acclamation, Tis mystery all could hardly be further from such a conception. This mystery is not deep darkness, but blinding light. A love so great and deep that is unfathomable. A sovereign king so deeply in love with rebels like us that he makes even death his own to defeat death's final sting. In this strange cross and resurrection shaped victory, we discover a brother in our flesh who is pioneer to path through human suffering and even death. In the victory of his cross and resurrection, he secures what we could never grasp ourselves, freedom from slavery to the fear of death which so often holds us captive. This is amazing love that bids our voices to sing and also leaves us speechless. So here's the deal. One of these days you're going to hear folk died. Don't believe it. Oh, my body fell off. Parts of it, I think, feel like they're starting to fall off now. But the point is this, that when my body is laid out in a casket somewhere, please do not come by and say, oh, he looks so good. There's no need to lie at a memorial service. So don't go there. Understand that I'm not there. I used to be there, but I'm not there. But think of these words. I want this song at my service. And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior's love? I mean, there is no question for me that is more of a driver than that. So next week we'll be back. Have a young woman who has some thoughts on an old gospel song. I think you're going to like it. Until then, thanks for subscribing. If you're able on the platform that you have and if you have thoughts, please write a review on the iTunes thing if you can. Until next week, we're just signing off. Catch you later. God bless. Bye bye. You