"'Tis I deserve thy place."

Hymn: “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” – Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676)
Tune: PASSION CHORALE

This is one of those mournful major-key hymns whose tune is beautifully married to its text. Its perceived dreariness keeps it from common use in public worship… except during this week when we need the less peppy to express the depths of our grief.

The hymn as a whole is a translation from a Medieval Latin poem, and the occasional archaic word makes it less immediately accessible (visage, languish, vouchsafe, etc.), but now and then throughout this devotional text, we understand more clearly the beautiful awfulness of the death of Jesus.

“Lo, here I fall, my Savior. ‘Tis I deserve thy place.” We call this “substitutionary atonement” - that is that Christ was my stand-in when it came to this moment in history. (That’s all the theology I’ll get into on this one!) No hymnline is much more clearly stated than this one; when we sing it (or read it), we speak truth… and we are startled by it. We are put in OUR place, humbled, brought down a notch; those of us who think we are the masters of our own soul find ourselves on our face before Christ, grateful.

In the ancient (1970’s) youth choir “folk musical” NATURAL HIGH, Ralph Carmichael and Kurt Kaiser had a song that said,
    “When I think of the cross, it moves me now:
    The nails in his hands, his bleeding brow…
    It should have been me.
    Instead I am free!”

Now and then I hear someone bragging about winning an argument, and they use the phrase, “I put him in his place.” On this day, reflecting on this hymn, realize that Jesus is on the cross this week because God put HIM in our place.

Fernando Ortega Sings This Hymn (pictures from THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST)