Saturday, April 26, 2003
Laredo Morning Times
PAGE 9A
RELIGION
“The Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6)
‘Rock of Ages:’ Story that goes along with the song
BY CHUCK OWEN
Minister, Northside
Church of Christ
This is a story about one of
our songs we sing in our
churches.
A few weeks ago, a man
left a message on my
church phone inquiring
about
a
phrase
in
the
song
“Rock
of
Ages.”
I
inadvertently
erased
his
name
and
teleCHUCK OWEN
phone number. This is a response to
him and, hopefully, some
appropriate thinking about
“Rock of Ages,” as it pertains to the death of Jesus
and the Rock that he
should therefore be to us.
The gentleman’s question
had to do with the meaning
of the song phrases, “Let
the water and the blood,
from thy wounded side
which flowed....”
One thing I think I know
about songs is that in
many cases we can’t know
for sure all the thoughts
that went through the mind
of the author of the song.
A song is usually first a
poem and then a song.
Usually, there is a story
that goes along with the
song.
Indeed, we have a lot of
older songs that have phrases or words that we should
try to know more about
rather than just singing them
rote.
In the case of “Rock of
Ages,” I read that an
“unsubstantiated” report
says that Augustus Toplady
was actually inspired for
the song while taking shelter under a rock in the
midst of a storm in
England. Looking at the
words, that would make
some sense, also knowing
that Toplady was a French
Calvinist minister. That kind
of situation might indeed
inspire one to reflect on the
saving power of the Lord
Jesus.
Toplady’s first words in the
song were, “Rock of Ages,
cleft for me. Let me hide
myself in Thee.”
Then came the phrases in
question of the “water and
the blood.” He spoke of that
as being a “double cure,
save from wrath and make
me pure.”
But to the question: The
gospel of John (19:34) has
the description of “blood and
water” flowing from Jesus’
side after the soldier pierced
his side with a spear after
finding that he was already
dead. The soldier had come
around at the request of the
Jews to break legs to hasten
death before the Sabbath,
we are told. But, finding
Jesus dead already, the soldier pierced his side.
The question for inquiring
minds is, why blood and
water?
In “A Physician Testifies
about the Crucifixion,” a
paper by Dr. Truman Davis,
the final story of Jesus’
death is told from the medical perspective.
Davis talks of the enormous pain and contortions
that Jesus’ body must have
suffered in trying to stay
alive as he hung on the
cross and what happens
inside. Then, “the legionnaire drove his lance
through the fifth interspace
between the ribs, upward
through the pericardium
and into the heart...there
was an escape of water
fluid from the sac surrounding the heart, giving postmortem evidence that Our
Lord died not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure (a
broken heart) due to shock
and constriction of the
heart by fluid in the pericardium.”
That is a medical answer
to the situation. But, not
being a physician of that
sort, I can’t vouch for it.
What did Toplady have in
mind by using that phrase
about the blood and water? I
think I know that, or at least
I know what it means to me.
The Bible teaches us that
without the shedding of
blood, there is no remission of sins (Hebrews
9:22). Jesus shed the
blood. Jesus was baptized
in water and commanded
his disciples to baptize
believers. Romans 6:3,4
speaks of the cleansing
that happens in baptism of
the believer. That is part of
what I think about when I
sing “Rock of Ages.”
(Chuck Owen is a minister at Northside Church of
Christ. Phone 729-1418,
e
m
a
i
l
Chxowen@netscorp.net.
All Bible quotes are from
the New International
Version.)