Don't Get Distracted

Jesus! the name high over all, 
in hell, or earth, or sky;
Angels and men before it fall, 
and devils fear and fly.

Jesus! the name to sinners dear, 
the name to sinners given;
It scatters all their guilty fear, 
it turns their hell to heaven.

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Jesus! the prisoner’s fetters breaks 
and bruises Satan’s head;
Power into strengthless souls it speaks, 
and life into the dead.

O that the world might taste and see 
the riches of His grace;
The arms of love that compass me 
would all mankind embrace.

His only righteousness I show, 
his saving grace proclaim;
Tis all my business here below 
to cry: Behold the Lamb!

Happy if with my latest breath 
I might but gasp His name;
Preach him to all and cry in death 
Behold, behold the Lamb!

I recently attended a funeral service where we sang the old hymn “Jesus! The Name High Over All.” It’s set to an eighteenth century tune by Thomas Philips that thrills the soul. The words are by Charles Wesley, author of more than 6000 hymns, many still sung today. The first three stanzas elevate Jesus for who he is. The last three focus on the author’s desire to let others know about this Jesus whom he loves.

Devils flee this name of Jesus; angels fall down and worship; but to those who recognize their own failures and are willing to call themselves sinners, it is a beloved name that speaks release from fear. 

Two women I know conduct Bible studies in the local jail. They see the same women over and over. My friends are not allowed to contact the women outside the jail. They give the women their contact information, but rarely does one get in touch after release. Despite their enthusiasm to study the Bible in the jail, once they are out, they return to their old situations, surrounded by the same temptations, bogged down in the same destructive relationships. Pretty soon they are back in jail, and my friends have a few more weeks to tell them more about this precious Jesus.

Charles Wesley knew all about prisoners and their fears—of consequences, of failure, of mockery from old friends. He and his brother John were eighteenth-century Anglicans who were “methodical” about meeting with people to study the Bible and put their faith into practice. As a result they visited prisoners in jail. They founded hospitals and orphanages. They lobbied to end the slave trade and child labor. I read somewhere the theory that England escaped the fate of bloody revolution that France suffered at the end of the eighteenth century because of the Wesleys’ work to remedy social evils. Charles Wesley was well aware that changing the law by itself won’t solve social problems.

Jesus! the prisoner’s fetters breaks 
and bruises Satan’s head;
Power into strengthless souls it speaks, 
and life into the dead.

He knew all about strengthless souls and the spiritually dead. It’s Jesus (not my friends at the jail) who can change people’s lives.

Lots of people thought the Wesleys were extremists. They got carried away with this religious stuff and rattled too many cages. People called them “Methodists” in mockery although they never left the Anglican Church. Their hearts were for others to know this Jesus who changed their lives.

O that the world might taste and see 
the riches of His grace;

Was Wesley thinking of the drunks and prostitutes he worked with or the religious prudes who objected to his bringing them into the church? Both need to taste and see. Both would be changed by the experience.

We evangelicals often get called names, accused of being “goodie goodies,” thinking we are “holier than thou.” But I can hear Wesley’s heart breaking here for the world.

The arms of love that compass me 
would all mankind embrace. 

That means you who are back in jail for the umpteenth time. That means you who have never soiled your feet with socially unacceptable sins. God wants to embrace you. Wesley claims no righteousness for himself despite all the incredible things he and his brother did to change a twisted world. He only wants to point to the Jesus of the first three stanzas: Behold the Lamb! 

“Don’t get distracted by me,” he says. “Look at Jesus!”