Consider Christ
Almighty God,
look with mercy upon this your family,
for which our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed,
given up into the hands of sinners,
and suffer death upon the cross,
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
In the Book of Common Prayer, from which this beautiful collect comes, the opening phrase is rendered “we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family” (otherwise it is almost identical). So the prayer on this most solemn of all days is simply asking God to look with mercy or graciously behold his family. However, what is striking about this prayer, and entirely appropriate, is that the main focus is not on us his family, but on the Lord Jesus Christ.
On this day of all days, the Church is invited in offering this prayer to gaze upon him. We are invited to focus on three dimensions of his passion: his betrayal, his being given up to sinners (“wicked men” in the BCP), and his suffering death upon the cross. The rehearsal of that suffering through the stages of betrayal, being under the control of those utterly hostile to him and bent on his destruction, through to his final death, are the heart of the prayer and the entire basis for God’s mercy or grace to us his family. It is because he did all this, that we can make our prayer through him now.
As we offer this prayer we are invited to slow down and contemplate the extent of his humiliation. If there is any danger anywhere of somehow taking his atoning death for granted, remember he was first betrayed; remember he submitted himself to abuse and unrelenting hostility; remember he could have walked away from it all but because of his intention to show mercy and grace to us he stayed the course until the end. As John 13:1 put it, “Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end”.
This prayer encapsulates the end. I don’t know about you, but I find this so helpful because I am taken again to the extent of his saving love and invited to gaze upon him as he goes through each stage, and wonder that he is willing to do this for me, and all of us, to receive mercy and grace.
This is the very heart of the gospel and saving faith. It is the centre of all history. It is the wellspring for our response of grace and offering ourselves to take up our cross and be willing to endure our share in betrayal, hostility, and worse, as he did for us. The prayer works by inviting us to do what Hebrews 12:3 calls us to do: “Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you do not grow weary or lose heart.” As we consider him, we know how it is possible for us to receive mercy and grace and pray through him to the Father.
Let us consider him as this prayer invites us to do, and be glad for God’s gracious looking upon us.
So pray this with me:
Almighty God,
look with mercy upon this your family,
for which our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed,
given up into the hands of sinners,
and suffer death upon the cross,
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.