It’s Good Friday, and we conclude our Lenten meditations with the closing stanzas 54 – 62 of George Herbert’s poem “The Sacrifice.” If you clicked that link, you got the original version of the poem with 1633 spellings. I have been posting my version with current spellings. I now make that version available to you in its entirety: “The Sacrifice,” by George Herbert with modernized spellings.

• Shame tears my soul, my body many a wound;
• Sharp nails pierce this, but sharper that confound;
• Reproaches, which are free, while I am bound.
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Now heal thy self, Physician; now come down.
• Alas! I did so, when I left my crown
• And fathers smile for you, to feel his frown:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• In healing not myself, there doth consist
• All that salvation, which ye now resist;
• Your safety in my sickness doth subsist:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Betwixt two thieves I spend my utmost breath,
• As he that for some robbery suffereth.
• Alas! what have I stolen from you?  Death.
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• A king my title is, prefixed on high;
• Yet by my subjects am condemned to die
• A servile death in servile company:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• They give me vinegar mingled with gall,
• But more with malice: yet, when they did call,
• With Manna, Angels’ food, I fed them all:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• They part my garments, and by lot dispose
• My coat, the type of love, which once cured those
• Who sought for help, never malicious foes:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• Nay, after death their spite shall further go;
• For they will pierce my side, I full well know;
• That as sin came, so Sacraments might flow:
•                                               Was ever grief like mine?

• But now I die; now all is finished.
• My woe, man’s weal: and now I bow my head.     [weal = wealth, common good]
• Only let others say, when I am dead,
•                                               Never was grief like mine. –“The Sacrifice” by George Herbert, stanzas 54 – 62.

And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots…And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour…And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. (Matthew 27.33 – 45, 50, ESV)

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” (John 19.32 – 37, ESV)