Our tragic mortality never feels so real as when a parent or spouse or child dies. Losing my father left me feeling untethered….And nothing can fix this untethered-ness. Nothing can repair the loss that death deals out in cruel doses. Nothing, that is, except resurrection and the death-defeating love of Christ.

In the summer of 2017, my father died rather suddenly. It became my responsibility both to design the funeral service and preach the sermon. My father and I had never had a conversation about his funeral. The closest we came was, when sitting with him in the hospital, he told me rather tearfully that he wanted his funeral to glorify God. Three days later he was dead.

I set to work by first trying to select appropriate hymns. But how does one select hymns for the funeral of a father? I tried to do the very thing he told me he wanted, to keep God’s glory as the uppermost concern. In that case, the church has left to us many hymns that are rich in theological depth and devotional warmth. Among the hymns I selected was What Wondrous Love is This. It has long been one of my favorite hymns both for its comforting lyrics and beautiful melody.

So many of our great hymns are made all the more profound by knowing about the lives of the writers. We think of John Newton and Amazing Grace or William Cowper and God Moves in a Mysterious Way. Unfortunately, the author of What Wondrous Love is This is unknown. It was published for the first time in 1811 in a Methodist hymnal entitled A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs. That same year it was published in the Baptist hymnal Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Though there are six stanzas in the final version, the hymn is typically published in four stanzas.

The traditional Appalachian melody (taken from an Old English ballad) has a mournful quality to it that is, perhaps ironically, quite fitting. Ironically because it is, after all, a hymn about the wondrous love of Christ. But it also speaks to our “sinking down” into sin, being under the “righteous frown” of God, and the certainty of death. We enter this fallen world as sinners at enmity with God. But the love of Christ meets us in such a way as to break through the sin and sorrow with the final word of hope.

The Astounding Love of Christ

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!

The opening lyric of the hymn is not a question but a declaration. “What wondrous love it this!” is voiced twice in the hymn. It is the reaction of one who, beholding how long and wide and high and deep is the love of Christ, calls forth others to witness the wonder of it all. Jesus preached the love of God for the whole world (Jn. 3:16). The Apostle Paul prayed that we would be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge (Eph. 3:18-19). And the Apostle John declared that God is love (1 Jn. 4:8). Jesus, the eternal Son, is more than love alone but He is never less. His love is never abstracted from His holiness and justice as though it were a mere component part. Jesus acts in love because He is love. “And God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

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