All they that see Him laugh Him to scorn: they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads, saying, He trusted in God that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, if He delight in Him. (Psalm 22: 7-8)

Handel and Jennens bring us to Golgotha and the cross. Jesus is hanging, pierced and bleeding. About his feet are gathered a handful of mourners and many more scoffers.

Once again Jennens transposes the first-person original ("All that see me laugh at me") into a third-person referring to the Christ.

Has our first-person been completely transformed in the third-person of the Messiah?

The twenty-second psalm opens with the words that Matthew writes were the last words of Jesus: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me."

Forsaken by those you love, laughed at by strangers, derided by those who claimed to love you, and slowly tortured: this is the death-scene of our redeemer.

Empathy - a sense of shared experience - seems to me an essential element of love. Could I truly love one who had never known my doubts, fears, and hurts? My laughter and joy?

Love can be understood as the self fully identifying with the other. Jesus lost himself in loving you and me. His love for himself, for God, for you and for me was of one piece. What is our response?

You can listen to All they that see Him from the Messiah performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Above is the Mocking of Christ by Matthias Grunewald.