What kind of hymn gives you comfort? Titles like “Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me,” “The Will of God is Always Best,” or “Commit Whatever Grieves Thee” might come to mind—hymns that address the particular trials in an individual Christian’s life, then apply Christ’s promises of help and relief. The “Cross and Comfort” sections of our hymnals are replete with wonderful hymns exactly to this purpose, and odds are you’ve turned there, as I have, in times of trouble or grief.
While these “Cross and Comfort” hymns are beloved, beautiful, and exceedingly useful, it’s interesting to notice that a different kind of comfort comes from another “category” of hymn: hymns about Christ’s passion. The 19th century Anglican poet Christina Rossetti seems to have made a similar observation in her poem “The Three Enemies.” The 3rd-5th class is currently memorizing this poem, and we’ve had wonderful discussions about the way it directs the troubled Christian to Jesus’ suffering and death.
Rossetti structured this poem as a dialogue between the Christian and his three enemies: the flesh, the world, and the devil. In the first line of each stanza, the designated enemy speaks to the Christian to entice him to self-pity, flattery, or sin. The Christian, then, responds with three succinct, elegant lines that direct his gaze away from himself to fix on his suffering Lord. Here is the poem’s full text:
THE FLESH
“Sweet, thou art pale.”
“More pale to see,
Christ hung upon the cruel tree
And bore His Father’s wrath for me.”
“Sweet, thou art sad.”
“Beneath a rod
More heavy, Christ for my sake trod
The winepress of the wrath of God.”
“Sweet, thou art weary.”
“Not so Christ:
Whose mighty love of me suffic’d
For Strength, Salvation, Eucharist.”
“Sweet, thou art footsore.”
“If I bleed,
His feet have bled; yea in my need
His Heart once bled for mine indeed.”
THE WORLD
“Sweet, thou art young.”
“So He was young
Who for my sake in silence hung
Upon the Cross with Passion wrung.”
“Look, thou art fair.”
“He was more fair
Than men, Who deign’d for me to wear
A visage marr’d beyond compare.”
“And thou hast riches.”
“Daily bread:
All else is His: Who, living, dead,
For me lack’d where to lay His Head.”
“And life is sweet.”
“It was not so
To Him, Whose Cup did overflow
With mine unutterable woe.”
THE DEVIL
“Thou drinkest deep.”
“When Christ would sup
He drain’d the dregs from out my cup:
So how should I be lifted up?”
“Thou shalt win Glory.”
“In the skies,
Lord Jesus, cover up mine eyes
Lest they should look on vanities.”
“Thou shalt have Knowledge.”
“Helpless dust!
In Thee, O Lord, I put my trust:
Answer Thou for me, Wise and Just.”
“And Might.”—
“Get thee behind me. Lord,
Who hast redeem’d and not abhorr’d
My soul, oh keep it by Thy Word.”
In this poem, Rossetti rightly sets forward Christ’s suffering and death as the Christian’s highest help in temptation and trouble. Some lines make this point by contrasting the Christian’s relatively light crosses with our Lord’s infinitely weightier one (“Beneath a rod / More heavy, Christ for my sake trod / The winepress of the wrath of God”). But other lines illuminate an even greater consolation, that our Savior loves us so greatly that He shed his blood and died for us (“Who for my sake in silence hung / Upon the Cross with Passion wrung” and “Who deigned for me to wear / A visage marr’d beyond compare”). Likewise, the poem asserts that Christ has overcome every enemy and borne every grief for us, so that we can pray to Him in our need (“In Thee Lord have I put my trust: / Answer Thou for me, Wise and Just”). Finally, as the Christian ponders and confesses his Lord’s passion, he simply isn’t thinking about himself. His sight is set on Jesus. And it’s hard to feel self-pity or succumb to temptation or feel deeply grieved about anything when “Jesus crucified for me” is imprinted on the heart.
Christians have a marvelous heritage of poems and hymns for our joy and consolation. And poems like Rossetti’s, or hymns in the “Lent” or “Passion” section, just might give the most wonderful comfort of all.
In Christ,
Miss Hahn
