George Herbert (1593-1633) was an English poet and minister of the gospel who left behind a sacrifice of praise (Heb 13.15) for the sacrifice of Christ. It took the form of a poem, uncharacteristically long, entitled, “The Sacrifice.” My first contemplative reading induced my weeping with gratitude to the Savior. Let me urge you all to savor its pungent, sacred sentiments.
“The Sacrifice” describes, with great feeling and power, the sufferings of Christ in His Passion. With poetic license, Herbert makes Christ the speaker. Sixty-three verses of four lines each end with the refrain, “Was ever grief like mine?” except for two verses with, “Never was grief like mine.” It is a meditation on the gospel narratives as a fulfillment of Lamentations 1.12,
Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see
If there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me,
Wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.1
An excellent help for appreciating the poem is Jim Scott Orrick’s devotional book, A Year with George Herbert: A Guide to Fifty-two of His Best Loved Poems (2011).2 An excerpt available online includes the whole text of “The Sacrifice” with Orrick’s explanatory comments.3
In this brief devotional message, we can only consider a small sample of the poem. Line numbers are in parentheses. The poem begins,
Oh all ye, who pass by, whose eyes and mind
To worldly things are sharp, but to me blind;
To me, who took eyes that I might you find:
Was ever grief like mine? (1-4)
Nearly paraphrasing the cited Scripture, Herbert fixes upon the sense of sight, the notion behind both the words “behold” and “see.” Passers-by witnessing Christ’s crucifixion were not physically but spiritually blind, as today. “Worldly things” they perceived clearly, but had no understanding or appreciation for the spiritual significance of Christ’s sufferings on the cross.
The eternal Son of God “took eyes,” that is, became a true man, making His suffering possible. The doctrine of divine impassibility4 is a crucial safeguard to the necessity and wonder of the Incarnation. Christ’s sufferings were particular to His human nature. But Herbert has Christ strikingly saying, “I took eyes that I might you find,” that is, find and recover spiritually. We would all be lost eternally except for Christ’s becoming a man and suffering.
What specifically about Christ’s Passion was a matter of grief to Him? This is the poem’s great theme explored to the end.
Pondering each verse to discern its particular occasion of grief to Christ is a useful method of analyzing the poem’s content, so please continue the exercise I have begun and illustrated here. I conclude by reproducing a few of the most poignant verses yet to be considered.
They bow their knees to me, and cry, Hail king:
What ever scoffs or scornfulness can bring,
I am the floor, the sink, where they it fling:
Was ever grief like mine? (173-176)
The soldiers also spit upon that face,
Which Angels did desire to have the grace,
And Prophets once to see, but found no place:
Was ever grief like mine? (181-184)
O all ye who pass by, behold and see;
Man stole the fruit, but I must climb the tree;
The tree of life to all, but only me:
Was ever grief like mine? (201-204)
I pray I have whetted your appetite enough for this exquisite praise to Christ crucified so that you will sit down to feast upon it as I have with profit to your soul. Then we will both be satisfied and love Christ more. Amen. Ω
Notes:
1 The Cambridge Paragraph Bible: of the Authorized English Version. (1873). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2 http://www.amazon.com/Year-George-Herbert-Guide-Fifty-Two/dp/1610972864 (accessed 31 Mar 2015).
3 First hit in a Google search of “George Herbert Orrick PDF” (accessed 31 Mar 2015).
4 See 2LCF II.1; God is “without body, parts, or passions.”