“Oh, Love, How Deep,” verse 5 (ELW 322)
Devotion
For us by wickedness betrayed,
for us, in crown of thorns arrayed,
he bore the shameful cross and death;
for us he gave his dying breath.
The fifth verse from the hymn "Oh, Love, How Deep" focuses on the parts of Lent that are some of the most difficult ones for us to reckon with: Jesus' pain on the cross, and our culpability in his suffering and death. Crucifixion was indeed both a painful and shameful way to die in the Roman Empire. The repetition of "for us" throughout this verse drives home the fact that we participated in causing Jesus’ pain. We know that we would have shouted "Crucify him!" along with the crowds. We know that we, like Paul, do the evil we do not want (Romans 7:19). Yet the "for us" is also good news: in Jesus' dying and rising, we have become "dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ" (Romans 6:11). As the cross of Good Friday looms ever closer, we must not turn away from the pain of Christ's death, but neither should we ever forget the good news of Jesus' resurrection—and our own—that awaits us.
Prayer
O God of compassion, as we journey toward Good Friday and the cross, help us to see Jesus’ pain and suffering as signs of the depth of your love, and to live in humble yet confident thanks that all that he gave was "for us." Amen.