Make Songs of Joy
A Bible Study Inspired by a Hymn
Text: Juraj Tranovsky (1591-1637)
Translator: Jaroslav J. Vajda (1919-2008)
(Lutheran Service
Book 484)
(Primary Biblical References: 1 Corinthians 15:55–57;
Isaiah 53:4–6)
Make
songs of joy to Christ, our head;
Alleluia!
He
lives again who once was dead!
Alleluia!
Our
life was purchased by His loss;
Alleluia!
He
died our death upon the cross.
Alleluia!
O
death, where is your deadly sting?
Alleluia!
Assumed
by our triumphant King!
Alleluia!
And
where your victory, O grave,
Alleluia!
When
one like Christ has come to save?
Alleluia!
Behold,
the tyrants, one and all,
Alleluia!
Before
our mighty Savior Fall!
Alleluia!
For
this be praised the Son who rose,
Alleluia!
The
Father, and the Holy Ghost!
Alleluia!
 |
| Juraj Tranovsky |
“Make
Songs of Joy” was written by Juraj Tranovsky (1591-1637). He is sometimes called
the “Father of Slovak hymnody” and sometimes the “Luther of the Slavs.” The son
of a blacksmith, he began studies at the University of Wittenberg in 1607.
Ordained in 1616, he spend his life teaching and preaching in Prague, Moravia,
Silesia, and finally in Slovakia. Under Ferdinand II Lutherans were persecuted,
and Tranovsky was imprisoned in 1623. At that time two of his children also
died of the plague.
Tranovsky
was a lover of poetry and hymns. He issued several collections of hymns, the
first being the Latin Odarum Sacrarum sive Hymnorum Libri III in 1629,
but his most important and most famous work was Cithara Sanctorum (Lyre/Harp
of the Saints), written in Czech, which appeared in 1636. This latter volume
has formed the basis of Czech and Slovak Lutheran hymnody to the present day.
In addition to hymn collections, Tranovsky translated the Augsburg Confession
in 1620 into Czech. These two latter works together with Bible of Kralice are
the pillars that supported the Slovak Reformation. Our Lutheran Service Book
has three of his hymns.
“Make
Songs of Joy” was translated by Jaroslave J. Vajda (1919-2008), a LC-MS pastor
and the son of a Lutheran pastor of Slovak decent. He was a prolific hymn
writer and translator. It is no surprise that a man whose ancestry is Slavic brings
us hymns from the “Father of Slovak hymnody.”
It
may, at first glance, seem odd that I’ve picked an Easter hymn for Holy Cross
Day. However, not only are Easter hymns always appropriate for Sunday worship
because Sunday worship is always done in remembrance of Easter, but I am also
drawn to this hymn because of its references to death and the cross.
The
joy we have as Christians as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord is
expressed right away in the first line of the hymn, “make songs of joy to Christ,
our head.” Paul discusses Christ as our head in Ephesians. He wrote: “Rather,
speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the
head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every
joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the
body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:15-16). The image
is always corporate. He is “our” head, not “my” head. So the Church corporate
sings songs of joy and we grow in our Christian Faith within the Body of
Christ, the Church, of whom Jesus is the head.
The
reason for this joy is that our Lord has defeated the enemy. The enemy that
receives special attention in this hymn is death. So St. Paul tells the
Corinthians:
55 “O
death, where is your victory?
O
death, where is your sting?”
56 The
sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks
be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1
Corinthians 15:55-57)
In
the 1 Corinthians passage Paul points also to the connection between death and
sin. Christ’s victory over death also means his victory over sin. As he is our
head and we are his body, his victory is also our victory. So, when we sing “He
lives again who once was dead” we also are singing “we” live who once were
dead, for we died and rose in Christ. Paul unpacks this connection in Romans 6
when he writes about our baptism. Therefore all images that speak of us as the
body of Christ and him as our head are also baptismal. Thanks to Christ’s
victory over death, and our connection to it through baptism, death and sin
have lost their power over us. Of course Christ was sinless (2 Corinthians 5:21)
so our baptismal union with him also grants us his sinlessness. In Christ we
are without the stain of sin.
As
Paul points out in verse 57, our response is to thank God who gives us the
victory through Jesus Christ. So our hymn is filled with praise and thanks. The
repeated singing of “Alleluia,” which means “praise the Lord,” keeps that before
us, as do the English phrases like “For this be praised the Son who rose … the
Father and the Holy Ghost!”
Notice how
Paul honestly indicates that we have done nothing to gain this victory—not
works, prayers, contributions, and so on. He gives us the victory. In
His grace and His unfathomable way, in eternity, He chose those whom He would
bring to faith in His Son through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:4); He works
through the Gospel, the Good News about Jesus (Romans 1:16), which can be
rejected (Acts 13:46). Believers, however, cling to the Scriptures, Baptism,
and the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42).
Isaiah
foresaw what the Messiah would do to earn the victory and wrote about it.
4 Surely
he has borne our griefs
and
carried our sorrows;
yet we
esteemed him stricken,
smitten
by God, and afflicted.
5 But
he was pierced for our transgressions;
he
was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him
was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and
with his wounds we are healed.
6 All
we like sheep have gone astray;
we
have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the
iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)
Jesus
defeated three enemies: Satan, sin, and death. Satan, the perpetrator of sin,
heaps problems upon us. God took all of them and put them on His Son. Those
problems include our griefs, sorrows, transgressions,
iniquities, and stripes (scourging, wounds, and bruises).
Isaiah
wrote, “The Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all.” That is when God accomplished his great purpose. That is what
the cross of Christ is all about. Then He rose! Alleluia!
No comments:
Post a Comment