2007 marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of Lutheran pastor and hymnist Paul Gerhardt. He was born in 1607 in a village near Wittenberg, Germany and he died in 1676 in Lubben, Germany. Gerhardt wrote a total of 133 hymns. Gerhardt’s hymns were born during a life of adversity, yet they proclaim a strong trust in God’s Word.

Lutheran hymns have a rich heritage of confession, profession, and faith. Their main theme is faith in a gracious God and in Jesus as the Savior of the world. The Lutheran Sentinel pays tribute to those hymns by looking at Paul Gerhardt’s life during this year.

Gerhardt’s Hymns Comfort Christians

“A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth” (ELH 331, TLH 142)

Isaiah described a man who was “acquainted with grief.” That man was Jesus, who endured grief, shame, and great pain in order to redeem the world from sin and to reconcile people to God. Jesus told His disciples that they should expect to suffer in a similar way: “The world hates you because you are not of the world,.” Also, If the world hated me it also hates you” “ You will be persecuted because of me, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Many a Christian has needed these words of comfort to strengthen them in adversity. Christians suffered horribly under the persecutions of the Roman Emperors. Succeeding generations of believers have suffered from invasions, wars, plagues, hatred, and persecution. All of these afflictions and more happened to Paul Gerhardt during his life. Yet God used him to write hymns which have comforted and strengthened other Christians during their sorrowful afflictions.

Gerhardt’s first trial came in 1619 when his father died at the age of 12 and in 1621 at the death of his mother. The next year Paul went to a boarding college in Gimma. In 1629 the plague brought death to 350 people in Grimma, Paul stayed on when others left. During this time the Swedish Lutheran armies were defending northern Germany from the Roman Catholic forces under the famous general Tilly, When Gustavas Adolphus died, the Swedish armies set fire to many towns, including Paul’s home town of Graefenhainichen. All Saxony was laid waste by this war. One-third of Wittenberg was in ruins also.

At the age of 44 Gerhardt became a pastor in 1651 at a small town named Mittenwalde. What once had been a thriving community of 1,000 people had shrunk to 250 because of the war and plague. After his marriage in 1655 their first daughter died when she was only eight months old. Gerhardt stayed in this town for six years, during which he wrote 66 hymns. Later the family moved to Berlin where four of the five children died. In 1662 Frederick the Great demanded that all preachers promise to not oppose the Reformed religion (which denied the Real Presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper). Pastor Gerhardt refused to compromise the Lutheran faith. During the next few years he had to endure the deaths of four children and of his wife in 1668.

One would think that a person who suffered so many afflictions would be melancholy and depressed. Gerhardt certainly had many days of sorrow and grief. Yet his hymns are filled with joy as they encourage believers to trust in God under every circumstance.

During the season of Lent as we sorrow over our sins, Paul Gerhardt’s hymn “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth” sets forth not only the suffering which Jesus endured, but also the blessed result of His work. Stanza one describes the suffering Jesus endured: bearing the guilt and sin of the world, patiently going “To slaughter led without complaint,” bearing “shame and stripes, and wounds and death, anguish and mockery.” Yet Jesus is willing to suffer all this in order to win salvation from death for the world.

Stanza two teaches that Jesus is the chosen One of God to “free men from the fear of death, from guilt and condemnation.” Jesus is the Father’s sacrificial Lamb who gave His life “to gain for us His favor.” In stanza three, Gerhardt presents Jesus’ answer to the Father’s sending: “Most willingly I’ll bear what Thou commandest” and “do what Thou demandest,” that is, to keep God’s law perfectly and to suffer eternal pain for the sins of the world. Gerhardt describes the glorious paradox that “the Father offers up His Son! The Son, content, descendeth!” These words parallel those of Jesus, “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him has everlasting life” (John 3:16). Stanza four describes what Jesus suffered as God’s offering: “Nails, spear, deep wounds.” God “slaughters” Jesus as His Passover lamb, whose holy, precious blood is shed to supply salvation for all people.

Stanzas five and six describe our response to Jesus’ loving sacrifice: “All my life I’ll cling to Thee,” “To sacrifice myself to Thee,” and “Thy constant praise outpouring.” Stanzas seven and eight are prayers asking God to enlarge our heart to hold Jesus as our greatest treasure and to employ this treasure to comfort us in every trouble.

Because of Jesus’ death, stanza 9 states that we need not fear death. His cross “affords cooling shade” during the hot afflictions of life, a rest to weary souls, and an anchor for “life’s stormy woe.” The final stanza looks ahead “when Thy glory I shall see” as we wear Christ’s blood as a royal robe and His crown of righteousness. With such things we will stand beside Jesus as His bride in heavenly joy.

This Good Friday hymn of Paul Gerhardt teaches the importance of what Jesus did as God’s Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Christians are to cling to Jesus alone for their hope of heaven. With such faith they will be able to deal with life’s sorrows, afflictions, and grief and even death. Paul Gerhardt was taught in the school of affliction to trust in God’s Word alone and look to Jesus for eternal joy.