Philippians 2:5-8

‘Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.’

My song is love unknown,

My Saviour’s love to me;

Love to the loveless shown,

That they might lovely be.

O who am I, that for my sake

My Lord should take, frail flesh and die?

He came from His blest throne

Salvation to bestow;

But men made strange, and none

The longed for Christ would know:

But O! my Friend, my Friend indeed,

Who at my need His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way,

And His sweet praises sing;

Resounding all the day

Hosannas to their King:

Then “Crucify!” is all their breath,

And for His death they thirst and cry.

Why, what hath my Lord done?

What makes this rage and spite?

He made the lame to run,

He gave the blind their sight,

Sweet injuries! Yet they at these

Themselves displease, and ‘gainst Him rise.

They rise and needs will have

My dear Lord made away;

A murderer they saved,

The Prince of life they slay,

Yet cheerful He to suffering goes,

That He His foes from thence might free.

In life, no house, no home

My Lord on earth might have;

In death no friendly tomb

But what a stranger gave.

What may I say? Heav’n was His home;

But mine the tomb wherein He lay.

Here might I stay and sing,

No story so divine;

Never was love, dear King!

Never was grief like Thine.

This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise

I all my days could gladly spend.

This well-loved hymn retells Christ’s Passion and emphasizes the divine love that Jesus gives us through his death. As we meditate on the words, let us remember that, above all, it is a love story: one between God, and humanity.

Susan Trustee @HHI