506. Of Time and Eternity

A sermon that I heard last night gave me a new perspective on (and maybe, appreciation of) the traditional American spiritual, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord." Here is a hymn that began to percolate in my skull during that message. I have no particular tune in mind at this time. Please excuse it's length; now and then you just have to say a thing completely. Oh, and here's Salvador Dali's depiction of Jesus on the cross. Interesting, isn't it? I grew up looking at a copy of this painting on my parents' wall and if a picture is worth a thousand words, perhaps it justifies my prolixity.

I was not there when Jesus died
In earthly space and time,
But on one Cross is crucified
Each sinner's every crime.

Before the Lord's eternal throne
One perfect Victim bleeds.
One, guiltless, suffers to atone
And, in defeat, succeeds.

God's Mercy Seat pervades all time
And penetrates all space;
One death thus answers for all crime,
Each moment, every place.

If Christ before such throne has bled,
Then my sin, too, was there.
For me was struck that sacred Head;
His sprinkled blood I wear.

For me are pierced those healing hands,
Those seldom resting feet,
When nature dons her mourning bands
Before that Mercy Seat.

For me, the words "Behold your son,"
"Today, in Paradise";
For me the cry when all was done,
And fully paid, the price.

For me the daylight turns to night;
For me earth's pillars quake,
The sanctuary bared to sight,
Its screen torn for my sake.

For me the tombs are broken up,
The faithful dead arise.
To me is passed the blessing-cup;
Christ greets my lips and eyes.

Before creation's deepest pile
By living Word was laid,
That Lamb is slain, and all the while
God's choice is freely made.

Before His face have I been bathed,
His Spirit on me poured.
Across all ages, I am swathed
In my Anointed Lord.

God's Son, indeed, is one with God,
And none can Christ divide.
And so, complete with flesh and blood,
I live in Him who died.

Now, bodily, my Lord is near,
My faith to feed and grow,
To do my deeds, to hear my prayer,
Unstinting grace to show.

In Him I live and breathe and move,
And when at last I rest,
Before the throne of faithful love
I'll evermore be blest.

UPDATE: I eventually (as of March 24, 2024) settled on the tune PRESERVATION, a.k.a. MORNING SACRIFICE, dated 1710 by Johann Christian Georg Störl (1675-1730), which appears once each in the Ev. Lutheran Hymn-Book (in a triple-meter arrangement, set to "Lord of my life! O may Thy praise") and in American Lutheran Hymnal (in straight quarter notes, set to "Again Thy glorious sun doth rise"). Here is one of the two arrangements, transposed down a half-step from ELHB; I also plan on using the ALH setting, but in triple time.