LBW 482, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”
Devotion
It’s a paradox! And Peter wouldn’t hear it: Jesus, the Messiah, the anointed One of God, would die – on “the wondrous cross.” The “prince of glory” sports a crown composed entirely, richly, of thorns! “My richest gain I count but loss … ” How can this be? How can I gain my life if I lose it?
What are the “vain things that charm me most”? What are the stumbling blocks in my life causing me to puff up with accolades of praise rather than “pour contempt on all my pride”?
Prayer
Lord God, this world is seductive. It shows us over and over what we should want out of life; we get caught up in the rhetoric and the vision. We forget that your ways are not the world’s ways. Instead we try to make it your vision, convincing ourselves that you would want it this way too. After all, don’t you want the biggest and the best for your Chosen people – those you have called to be your disciples? But you sent your Son to be one of us – an ordinary guy – a man who worked with his hands and associated with the ordinary, even forgotten, folk of the world, not the “high and mighty” nor the “noble of birth.” Turn me, Lord, from the seduction of this world to the wondrous cross where you poured out your love for me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.