"Mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain."

Hymn: "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded" - Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676); translated by James W. Alexander
Tune: PASSION CHORALE

Such somber hymns as this one are often passed over for worship except maybe on Good Friday. After all, the thing is harmonized by J. S. Bach; and you print that in your bulletin in many churches, and you hear eyes roll! Too bad -- on several levels.

Because we skip this hymn, we don't get opportunity to sing today's hymn-line often enough - if ever. Whether we sing it or not, it's worth giving it a look.

With two grandsons, I frequently hear the phrase, "It wasn't my fault." Seems that whatever has gone wrong, the one closest to the accident immediately, instinctively speaks those words. In my attempt to teach some wonderful abiding truth, I hear myself say, "It's okay. Everything is not somebody's fault."

But when it comes to Christian theology, the One whose sacred head is thorn-pierced had to endure the "deadly pain" because it WAS my fault... and the fault of everyone who has transgressed against God at whatever level - of everyone who went deliberately in a direction opposite to the ones clearly lined out for us in scripture - of everyone who (shall I dare say it?) sinned.

We get this from Isaiah 53:5 ("He was wounded for our transgressions... bruised for our iniquities.") and First Peter 2:24 ("He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross...") among others.

If I had been at Golgotha on that Friday long ago, I might have instinctively uttered that same phrase: "It wasn't my fault." I probably do that now when I reflect on the cross-event; but in the back of my mind a still small voice whispers, "O, but it was."

To rephrase this hymn-line - and since it is a translation based from a Medieval Latin poem, it's probably okay to do so - it might read: "It was my fault, my fault that you had to die like that."

Fortunately for me and my fellow sinners, the words we hear from Golgotha are, "Father, forgive them because they don't understand what they are doing" -- or have done.

A downer? Well, it shouldn't be, especially if we keep singing:

     O make me thine forever, and should I fainting be,
     O let me never, never outlive my love to thee.

Mine, mine the ongoing transgression.
Never, never an outlived love.

Listen to This Hymn

Sung by the amazing Fernando Ortega

(Listen, don't necessarily watch!)