Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent was last Wednesday. I will devote each Sunday’s blog to a Lenten meditation, including Palm Sunday, March 24. We will end our Lenten meditations on Good Friday, March 29.

Our interim pastor, Dr. John Anderson, has just introduced us to a long poem I hadn’t seen before. At 62 stanzas, it will form the basis of our meditations. It’s “The Sacrifice” by George Herbert, published in 1633. I have modernized the spelling to make it easier to read. Here’s how it starts:

(The bullets allow me to single-space the lines.)

• 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?

• The Princes of my people make a head
• Against their Maker: they do wish me dead,
• Who cannot wish, except I give them bread;
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Without me each one, who doth now me brave,
• Had to this day been an Egyptian slave.
• They use that power against me, which I gave:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Mine own Apostle, who the bag did bear,
• Though he had all I had, did not forbear
• To sell me also, and to put me there:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• For thirty pence he did my death devise,
• Who at three hundred did the ointment prize,
• Not half so sweet as my sweet sacrifice:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Therefore, my soul melts, and my heart’s dear treasure
• Drops blood (the only beads) my words to measure:
• O let this cup pass, if it be thy pleasure:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• These drops being tempered with sinners’ tears
• A balsam are for both the Hemispheres [hemispheres = eyes]
• Curing all wounds, but mine; all, but my fears:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Yet my Disciples sleep; I cannot gain
• One hour of watching; but their drowsy brain
• Comforts not me, and doth my doctrine stain:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine? -“The Sacrifice” by George Herbert, stanzas 1 – 8.

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him. (Matthew 26.6 – 16, ESV)

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26.36 – 41, ESV)