For this you are exalted (Michael Joncas)

The crowds who cried, Hosanna,

now clamor, Crucify!

Where once you rode in triumph

you stumble out to die.

O suffering Messiah,

O Lord of love and loss,

reveal to us the myst’ry

of your redeeming cross.

This instrument of torture,

this altar on a hill

this artifact of evil

confounded by God’s will,

provides the godforsaken

the sign of God’s embrace:

your outstretched arms, Christ Jesus,

a miracle of grace.

God’s equal, yet you never

clung to a form divine

but in our human likeness

lived out God’s great design.

Thus emptied, stripped, and humbled,

obedient unto death,

a slave upon a scaffold,

you drew your final breath.

For this you are exalted

and marked with great acclaim,

receiving highest honors:

the name above all names

So at your name, Christ Jesus,

now ev’ry knee will bend,

with every tongue proclaiming

your Lordship without end.

--Michael Joncas, 

For This You are Exalted,
reproduced with the permission of the composer

These words were written to be sung to the music of Bach's Passion Chorale, which we know more familiarly as O Sacred Head Surrounded.  Meditate on the lyrics above and listen to an instrumental version of Bach's piece by clicking on the link below:

Image source: Peter Bruegel, The Procession to Calvary (1564),  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Procession_to_Calvary_(Bruegel)
Lyrics source
Video source