Jesus Hastening To Suffer

Jesus Hastening To Suffer

It is an odd thing to think about Jesus, propelled by Love for the Father and man, not hesitating in His sacrifice. His heart to honor/obey the Father (one of the two parts of worship) propelled Him to endure the cross…

    “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
    -Hebrews 12:2b

He, with eyes on the resulting reconciling of man to God and the glory it would bring the Godhead, set Himself to push through. Seeking the Father produced obedience and glory to Him. This isn’t a trite precious moments postcard. This is something graphic. The flower that bloomed was of a kind never seen; rare, and beautiful, but that middle part was gruesome, vile and terrible. He hastened to suffer for what was on the other end, not for the minutiae of the process. Chesterton talks about a very similar process in his book Heretics

    "Even if the ideal of such men were simply the ideal [for example] of kicking a man downstairs, they thought of the end like men, not of the process like paralytics. They did not say, 'Efficiently elevating my right leg, using, you will notice, the muscles of the thigh and calf, which are in excellent order, I--' Their feeling was quite different. They were so filled with the beautiful vision of the man lying flat at the foot of the staircase that in that ecstasy the rest followed in a flash."

It is the same idea. “For the joy set before him.." It was the beautiful vision. He saw the redemption of man and the glory of the father. The joy was before Him. And He was the first. First to lay down, first to rise, first to triumph. He did that for us on our behalf. It is something we could not and can not do for ourselves. He gives that to us. Out of gratitude, and love we respond. He sets this example for our worship. Here is the context of our passage.

    "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
    -Hebrews 12:1-3

All that to say, He not only examples it for us, but by the Spirit, gives us the desire and the power to do it. C.S. Lewis says

    “God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.”

Like Him, we bare a cross, but lighter than His. We bare ours in light of His; with our eyes on His. And in that we can rejoice, that though we lose sight of Him and regress to self-love, the loving-kindness of our savior is always there. I love these words of William Cowper. They are a perfect reminder of the readiness of our Lord to rescue us at great personal cost. The last two stanzas of his poem succinctly lay the finger on the pulse of our response and prayer.

    "Lord! we return thee what we can,
    Our hearts shall sound abroad
    Salvation to the dying man,
    And to the rising God!

    And while thy bleeding glories here
    Engage our wondering eyes;
    We learn our lighter cross to bear,
    And hasten to the skies."

So there sits the Christian life: sinning in or going through a trial, forgetting or losing faith in our Savior's work, then remembering His work/cost/effectiveness, and turning to Him in thanksgiving. There we go until He comes for us. It is a good thing to remember our Savior being bound for us, our Healer being broken for us, and our Hope diving into the hopelessness of death for us.

If you have problems with the chords, message me and I'll help the best I can.

JESUS HASTENING TO SUFFER

words by William Cowper, Nate Fanno, Paul Hedrick; 
music and melody by Paul Hedrick
D, Dadd9, GMaj9

      D         Dadd9 GMaj9

the Savior, what a noble flame
        D          Dadd9 GMaj9

Was kindled in his  breast,
          D       Dadd9        GMaj9

When hastening to Jerusalem,
      D                Dadd9     GMaj9

He marched before the rest!

GMaj9                Asus4 6th

Lord! we return thee what we can,
       GMaj9                      Asus4 6th

Our hearts shall sound abroad
GMaj9                 Asus4 6th

Salvation to the dying man,
       GMaj9           Asus4 6th

And to the rising God!

D              Dadd9         GMaj9

Good-will to men and zeal for God
      D        Dadd9       GMaj9

His every thought engrossed;
      D           Dadd9        GMaj9

He longs to cleanse us with blood;
      D           Dadd9      GMaj9

He pants to reach his cross.

GMaj9                Asus4 6th

Lord! we return thee what we can,
       GMaj9                      Asus4 6th

Our hearts shall sound abroad
GMaj9                 Asus4 6th

Salvation to the dying man,
       GMaj9           Asus4 6th

And to the rising God!

        D        Dadd9        GMaj9

With all his sufferings full in view,
       D           Dadd9 GMaj9

And woes to us   unknown,
D           Dadd9          GMaj9

Forth to the task his spirit flew;     

          D            Dadd9        GMaj9

'Twas love that urged him on.

GMaj9                Asus4 6th

Lord! we return thee what we can,
       GMaj9                      Asus4 6th

Our hearts shall sound abroad
GMaj9                 Asus4 6th

Salvation to the dying man,
       GMaj9           Asus4 6th

And to the rising God!

  D,  GMaj7

Em add9          Bm aug5

And while thy bleeding glories here
    D             GMaj7

Engage our wondering eyes;
Em add9          Bm aug5

We learn our lighter cross to bear,
       D          GMaj7

And hasten to the skies.

GMaj9                Asus4 6th

Lord! we return thee what we can,
       GMaj9                      Asus4 6th

Our hearts shall sound abroad
GMaj9                 Asus4 6th

Salvation to the dying man,
       GMaj9           Asus4 6th

And to the rising God!

 

So for the tunings I use that make it easy see below. I can message the tabeture if needed. The chords above are the real chords. You can try doing it without the {aug5 and 6th} to get you where you need to be.

if tuned to CGCFA#D than Capo 4

if tuned to DADGCE than Capo2