Such a Worm

Alas! and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sov'reign die;

Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?

We saw an awesome video, with an updated version of this hymn, in church on Sunday, and it brought to mind a long-ago, Wednesday evening Lenten service at Grace Lutheran Church in Fairbury. I was about fourteen. My friend, Susan, and I were seated together with the choir in the front of the dim sanctuary, singing the first verse of the first hymn, as written above. When we came to the end of the verse, to the words, "such a worm as I," we looked at each other and burst into simultaneous, uncontrollable, (but necessarily silent) giggles. There was no way we could finish singing the song. It took all of our energy to keep from laughing out loud.

Now, we had each sung this particular hymn many times, and it had never before affected either of us in just that way. Neither one of us were, by nature, giggly girls. I guess that the image of ourselves as worms was so funny to us at that moment that we fed off of each other, missing the whole meaning of the song, at least right then.

Think about it.  What is so lowly as a worm?  A sightless, legless, invertebrate, destined to consume the filth that surrounds it, never seeing the light; in fact, having no concept of light, because it has nothing to see with.

And there we were, as all of us are, as lowly as worms in God's sight, destined to die in our sins unless we saw the light that Jesus offers, but having no natural recognition of our need for a Savior.  Jesus saw us as we were, caught in the depths of our sin, and loved us anyway.  He loved us so much that He willingly bled and died to rescue us from our despair, even before we realized our need for His gracious sacrifice.

For a while, in more recent years, I was happy to sing the modern, sanitized version of this hymn:

Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sov'reign die?

Would He devote that sacred head for sinners such as I?

I guess it says the same thing as the original, sort of.  But, in our world today, I think that many of us have lost sight of the concept of sin.  Sure, we admit that we are sinners, but we're certainly no worse than anybody else, and a lot better than some, at least in our own minds.  The word, sinner, just doesn't carry the same impact as that word, worm, does.  As a sinner, I may not consider myself to be so awful, because "everybody does it," but as a worm, I know that I am doomed to wallow in my own muck, unless someone miraculously rescues me.

That's what Jesus did.

Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree?

Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide and shut its glories in

When God, the mighty Maker, died for His own creatures' sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face while His dear cross appears,

Dissolve my heart in thankfulness, and melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief cannot repay this debt of love I owe;

Here, Lord, I give myself away: It's all that I can do.                    

Isaac Watts, 1707