O Come and Mourn with Me Awhile

O Come and Mourn with Me Awhile

O come and mourn with me awhile,
O come ye to the Savior’s side
O come, together let us mourn,
Jesus our Lord is crucified.

Seven times He spake seven words of love;
And all three hours His silence cried
For mercy on the souls of men;
Jesus our Lord is crucified.

O love of God! O sin of man!
In this dread act your strength is tried;
And victory remains with love;
Jesus our Lord is crucified!

O break, O break, hard heart of mine!
Thy weak self-love and guilty pride
His Pilate and His Judas were:
Jesus our Lord is crucified.

A broken heart, a fount of tears,
Ask, and they will not be denied;
A broken heart love’s cradle is:
Jesus our Lord is crucified.

O love of God! O sin of man!
In this dread act your strength is tried;
And victory remains with love;
Jesus our Lord is crucified!

And victory remains with love;
Jesus our Lord is crucified!

This is an Indelible Grace version of one of my favorite hymns, and it's just... wow.

In thinking about the death of Christ and Good Friday and all, this hymn just stands out in my head as such an amazing picture of what Christ did for us. It is good, I think to mourn Hs death, while celebrating it as our salvation, and celebrating His resurrection. Because without thinking about how powerful His death was, we can't truly appreciate what He did for us.

To think of how He spoke with both His words and His silence on our behalf almost chills me. He could have changed His mind. He could have called down hosts of angels from heaven to rescue Him. He could have, in His own power, removed Himself from the cross. He could have spoken a word, and killed all of His tormentors, but He didn't. He bore all of our sin and shame, and all of His Father's wrath and anger.

"O break, O break, hard heart of mine!
They weak self-love and guilty pride
His Pilate and His Judas were..."

Sometimes, I think we get caught up in "The Romans/Jews/Pharisees/Pilate/Judas/etc. killed Jesus." But that's just not the truth. They were directly involved in His death, yes. No denying that. But what truly betrayed Him, what truly turned Him over to be killed, was our sin. Our inability to follow our Father's plan for us is what killed the Son. Our pride, our inability to obey, our love of ourselves above all else, our idolatry, our lust and everything else... That is what crucified Christ. And to be honest, that's a sobering thought. That our disobedience crucified Him just as much as Judas's betrayal, or Pilate's turning Him over to the people to be killed.

"A broken heart love's cradle is..." I think this is a key phrase in this song. Our hearts must be broken by our own sin before they can accept the Love that died for them. And I for one am heartbroken just from thinking of the huge part that my sin had in nailing Him to the cross and taking the Father's love from Him, if only for a short time. He suffered having the Father He'd loved for all eternity turn His back on Him, seeing nothing but our wrongdoing when He looked at Him. I can't imagine that pain, but I know that my heart breaks to think of it.

"O love of God! O sin of man!
In this dread act your strength is tried;
And victory remains with love;
Jesus our Lord is crucified!"

This is my favorite part. The crucifiction, in effect, was a battle between God's love and our sin. It was a cosmic war, in which two great forces battled for our souls, their strength being put to the greatest of tests. And, as the hymn says, victory remains with love. The battle was won, Christ's love triumphant over our sin. Nothing we can do can separate us once we have accepted His payment for our sins.

I hope this song will mean as much to y'all as it does to me. It just touches my heart every time I hear it... That's all I got. Happy Easter!