He was punctuating
his sermon with a song, and was it a challenge he was reemphasizing to some who
listened? The context of the words and their origin were perhaps significant for
Erdmann Neumeister as he uttered the words “Christ Receives (Receiveth) Sinful
Men” first spoken by some complainers centuries earlier. No doubt many who hung
around Jesus were fascinated by Him -- in fact, perhaps by almost everything
about Him. Then there were those moments when He said or did something repulsive,
at least to the laymen’s way of thinking. Was 47-year-old Erdmann dealing with
a similar dichotomy among the religious crowd he observed in Hamburg (in modern-day
Germany; see its coat of arms here)? Or, was he really just highlighting the
way the Divine One shakes up conventional social mores, to remind himself and
his hearers how inclusive God is, how far He will go to rescue someone?
Erdmann Neumeister
had been in ministry for over 20 years when he composed the words for a sermon
and this hymn about a radical relationship between sinners and Christ in 1718. Perhaps
it was a particular episode, or maybe it was just the totality of his
experience with his culture and the well-to-do that stuck with him and helped
spawn this hymn. Neumeister probably crossed paths and served not a few people
who might have been regarded as the upper crust of the society in which he
found himself. After attending and then lecturing at the university of Leipzig
in the late 17th Century, he was the personal mentor to a duke’s
daughter, a relationship (with this family) that contributed to his appointment
to another position as senior court preacher and superintendent in Sorau by 1706.
All these were stepping stones, in a way, to a similar position in Hamburg where
he went by 1715. It was there that he continued to preach and write hymns,
including ‘Christ Receiveth…’. One day he apparently was delivering a message
based on what some mutterers were saying about Jesus (Luke 15:2) Erdmann turned
their words around, saying ‘Yes indeed, Christ does welcome the sinful.’ It was
a message to his hearers, but maybe also to himself, that God doesn’t play
favorites. The crowd with whom I rub elbows gets me not one step closer to His
kingdom. Indeed, maybe I need to recognize how much alike the ‘sinners’ and I look,
instead of the dissimilarities that I can see between us. Is there any difference,
on the inside, between that beggar and me?
On which
side of the ledger of life are you and me today? Do you look at yourself in the
positive column, someone who’s a believer and has no apparent disqualifying warts?
You follow the civil laws – you pay your taxes, don’t speed (at least not too much), etc. Maybe you even go to
church and support a number of charities. People who know you say ‘He’s a good person.’ How do I honestly compare
myself with the prostitute, or that guy who sneaks a little outta the contribution
plate, or the guys who drinks and drives and manages not to get caught? Maybe
he even brags a little about it, at least to those of his own kind. Erdmann reminds
me (the positive column occupant) that my minus-column, crusty, smelly,
cross-town burden-on-society fellow human being has as much access to the Holy Purifier,
to the eternal, compassionate, and saving God as me. I just have to know this: He
cleans the both of us up for Eternity with the same divine detergent – His blood.
See more
information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of
Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J.
Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; and Amazing
Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck,
Kregel Publications, 1990.
See a
brief biography of the author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/n/e/u/neumeister_e.htm
Also see this link, showing all four original verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/c/h/r/chrisrec.htm
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