Just Another Clay Pot: Good Friday Requiem (A Medley of Scripture and Hymn)

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" And he who had died came out...

"I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."

“Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God.’”

The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! God is the LORD, and He has given us light; bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.

This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bull, which has horns and hooves. The humble shall see this and be glad; and you who seek God, your hearts shall live.

Oh sacred head, now wounded

With grief and shame weighed down

Now scornfully surrounded

With thorns Thine only crown;

How art Thou pale with anguish,

With sore abuse and scorn!

How doth that visage languish

Which once was bright as morn!

“I am feeble and severely broken. My heart pants, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me. My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, and my relatives stand afar off. I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children.” (For even His brothers did not believe in Him. All His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.)

“I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me ridicule me, saying, ‘He trusted in the LORD; let Him rescue Him. Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him.’”

Even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ.”

“They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Dogs have surrounded me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it has melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue clings to my jaws; You have brought me to the dust of death.”

What Thou my Lord hast suffered

‘Twas all for sinners’ gain

Mine, mine was the transgression,

But Thine the deadly pain.

Lo, here I fall, my Savior!

‘Tis I deserve Thy place;

Look on me with Thy favor,

Vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

“Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

“But You are He who took me out of the womb; You made me trust while on my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon you from birth; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. In You, O LORD, I hope; You will hear, O Lord my God. But my enemies are vigorous, and they are strong; and those who hate me wrongfully have multiplied. Those also who render evil for good, they are my adversaries, because I follow what is good. Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on Me.

“But You, O LORD, do not be far from me; O my Strength, hasten to help me! I am poor and sorrowful; let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high. Do not forsake me, O LORD; O my God, be not far from me!”

“MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

What language shall I borrow

To thank Thee, dearest Friend,

For this, Thy dying sorrow,

Thy pity without end?

Oh make me Thine forever,

And should I fainting be,

Lord, let me never, never

Outlive my love for Thee.

Amen

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The hymn: “Oh Sacred Head, Now Wounded” by Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676).

The Scripture references, in order of use:

John 1:4

John 10:10

John 11:43-44

John 10:17-18

Ps. 40:6-8

Ps. 118:22-24

Ps. 118:26-27

Ps. 69:31-32

Ps. 38:8

Ps. 38:10-11

Ps. 69:8

John 7:5

Luke 23:49

Ps. 22:6-8

Luke 23:35

Ps. 22:18

Ps. 22.16

Ps. 22:14-15

Ps. 69:20-21

Ps. 22:9-11

Ps. 38:15

Ps. 38:19-20

Ps. 69:9

Ps. 22:19

Ps 69:29

Ps. 38:21

Mark 15:34

Isa. 53:10-12

(All Scriptures used were chosen because the New Testament identified them as Messianic prophecies, or because they were found in context with such prophecies.)