Jesus' ministry 1 - Things Jesus said
Hymns about the ministry of Jesus
Jesus confronting the pharisees
Arguably, this is the strongest category in Singing the Faith of those hymns that draw directly upon the words and deeds of Jesus’ active ministry. It includes a number of well-established and popular hymns. Some are based around key sayings of Jesus. For example:
- Jesus the Lord said (StF 252) based on five of the so-called “I am” sayings of John within the Gospel of John 6: 34-35; 15: 1-5; 14:6; 8:12; 11:25 (see all passages together here)
The Beatitudes, in the version recounted in the Gospel of Matthew 5: 1-10 are paraphrased by David Haas in Blest are they (StF 245); and we have two versions of the Lord’s Prayer, by Joseph Lees and Ian Worsfold (StF 762 and 763).
The parables of Jesus fare less well, except in single-line allusions. The kingdom of God is justice and joy (StF 255) draws upon a number of Jesus’ so-called “parables of the kingdom”; while Pamela Verrall’s Would you walk by on the other side (StF 257) is clearly inspired by the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37) but without ever naming it. On StF+ you will also find a direct re-telling of that parable, “Who is my neighbour?” asked the scribe by John M. Smith, but for some this will have too much of an older Sunday School style about it.
Also Jesus' ministry part 2 (Events in Jesus' life) and part 3 (More about metaphors)