2. Jesus, my Redeemer, lives;
I, too, unto life shall waken.
Endless joy my Savior gives;
Shall my courage, then, be shaken?
Shall I fear, or could the Head
Rise and leave His members dead.?
The last line of this verse is particularly poignant. Luther looked at the birth of a child from the child’s view point rather than the mothers. The head comes out first as the child is being born, then the shoulders and after that everything is easy. Once the head comes forth the rest of the body follows. Luther then uses that image in dying. Dying in Christ is being born into a new life. Christ as the head has died and has arisen. Death cannot longer hold him, and the rest of the body is following. When we die as a member of His body we follow the head who is risen and we will rise to. In one place Luther talks about the concept of death trying to hang onto a little toe and can’t even do that.
We are members of Christ’s body Paul says. We are the body of Christ, and each one of us individually a member of it. Our head has gone before to prepare the place for us and we will follow where He is. What a grand image.
