"Ask ye what great thing I know?"

Hymn: “Ask Ye What Great Thing I Know” – Johann C. Schwedler (1672-1730
Common Tune: HENDON

I rarely use the first line of a hymn as the hymnline for the day, but today I am!

You know the old jokes about how if when questioned in Sunday School, a child doesn’t know the answer, it’s usually a pretty safe bet he/she can reply, “Jesus” – and have a pretty good chance at being correct.

This hymn is basically a series of questions to which the answer IS “Jesus”! In fact, it’s “Jesus Christ, the crucified (One).”

Here are some of the questions:
- Do you ask what is the greatest thing I know?
- Do you wonder what delights and stirs me so deeply?
- What is the high reward I win by following this faithful path?
- Whose name do you think I glory in?
- What the strong foundation of my faith?
- What awakens my lips to sing?
- Who is the center of my life (life in life)?
- Who will ultimately be the death of death?
- On whose right will I be seated along with all the host of saints who have gone ahead of me into the glorious rest?

It’s almost like a catechism. Questions are posed and correct, learned answers are repeated. Quite honestly, for the true follower of Christ, this IS the answer to all these questions. Fortunately, unlike the formal catechism, the answers don’t change… only the questions do!

The final stanza is one long answer:
     This is that great thing I know!
     This delights and stirs me so:
     Faith in him who died to save,
     Him who triumphed o’er the grave:
     Jesus Christ, the Crucified!

Go back and read through the list again, and see if you can honestly answer “Jesus… the One who was crucified for me.” It might reveal an area of your own faith walk that could use some work. I won’t ask which ones YOU struggled over if you won’t ask ME!