Holy Week: Maundy Thursday & Good Friday

Last night I played my violin for one of my two favorite church services every year: Maundy Thursday. (Never mind I haven't actually touched my violin since the other favorite service - Christmas Eve. My hands are a little swollen today. It was well worth it.)

One of the reasons I love those two services best each year is that they are evening services. They always have a later start time, and end in stillness - dark, peace, quiet.  To me, they will always be linked in my mind since I started attending this church because on Christmas Eve, seven candles are lit.  On Maundy Thursday, seven candles are snuffed.  Both represent a life that is connected - Christmas is related to Easter.  Jesus came into this world (Christmas) to be our Savior (Easter).  

Maundy Thursday is especially a time of reflection. It is a service of darkness during which we remember the struggle of Jesus as he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal and arrest, being denied by his disciples, and other Biblical events that led to his crucifixion on Good Friday.

This year, there were two pieces that we did that I just loved. The first was Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted. I felt extremely convicted: who am I who judges my own sin so lightly, when the perfect Son of God bore my awful load of sin and died for it? Yet my hope is built in Him.

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,

See Him dying on the tree!

'Tis the Christ by man rejected;

Yes, my soul, 'tis He, 'tis He!

'Tis the long expected prophet,

David's Son, yet David's Lord;

Proofs I see sufficient of it:

'Tis a true and faithful Word.

Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,

Was there ever grief like His?

Friends through fear His cause disowning,

Foes insulting his distress:

Many hands were raised to wound Him,

None would interpose to save;

But the deepest stroke that pierced Him

Was the stroke that Justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly,

Nor suppose the evil great,

Here may view its nature rightly,

Here its guilt may estimate.

Mark the Sacrifice appointed!

See Who bears the awful load!

'Tis the Word, the Lord's Anointed,

Son of Man, and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation,

Here the refuge of the lost.

Christ the Rock of our salvation,

Christ the Name of which we boast.

Lamb of God for sinners wounded!

Sacrifice to cancel guilt!

None shall ever be confounded

Who on Him their hope have built.

Words: Thomas Kelly, Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture, 1804

Music: Wo Ist Jesus, Mein Verlangen, Geistliches Volkslied, 1850

The second piece that I loved so much is Psalm 22 from The Psalm Project.