The Greatest Passion Hymn You (Probably) Don't Know - and How We're Going to Change That

(A version of this article appears in the St. Mark's Messenger, March 2022.)

Paul Gerhardt

Repetition.
Repetition.
Repetition.

It's how we learned to write our name, use the multiplication tables, say the Pledge of Allegiance, and recite John 3:16. It's how we learned to sing our first songs. It would not be far-fetched to say that repetition is how we first learned God loves us. (Jesus love me, this I know. . .)

The change of liturgical seasons is a great time to introduce a new hymn - at least a hymn that's new to us.

During the season of Lent, we'll add the hymn A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth to our repertoire of assembly song. We learn it through, you guessed it, repetition!

Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676), Germany's most famous hymn writer, wrote this classic hymn about the passion. In many congregations it is well-known and deeply loved. But it doesn't seem to be familiar at St. Mark's.

The Prayer of the Day for Palm/Passion Sunday says this:

Christ Carrying the Cross - El Greco

A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth expands on several points from this prayer.  The opening stanza introduces us to God's lamb, expressing his pain, humiliation, and loss as he goes to his death. The second and third stanzas imagine a conversation between the Father and the Son with Jesus agreeing to take on human form. He does this out of obedience to the Father and with profound love for us - to do what we cannot do for ourselves. The final stanza expresses that we no longer need to fear death since Christ, himself, will bring the church before God's throne where it shall remain for eternity.

Since repetition is one of the ways we can learn a new hymn, we'll hear it sung and played in a variety of ways before we sing it on Palm Sunday. You can help your learning by following along in Evangelical Lutheran Worship when the hymn is being sung.

March 6, First Sunday in Lent

A soloist sings the first stanza, followed by an organ variation by Bálint Karosi, Cantor at St. Peter's (ELCA) church in New York City.

March 13, Second Sunday in Lent

A soloist sings another stanza, followed by another Karosi setting on the organ.

March 20, Third Sunday in Lent

The Festival Choir sings the full hymn during the prelude.

March 27, Fourth Sunday in Lent

A final organ variation from Karosi.

April 3, Fifth Sunday in Lent

The St. Mark's Ringers play a handbell arrangement by Larry Sue.

Finally, on Palm Sunday, we will all sing A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth as the Hymn of the Day. May it remind us all how in endless love for the human race, God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to take on our nature and to suffer death on the cross.