Poem #3 Redemption – George Herbert

Redemption

by George Herbert

Having been tenant long to a rich Lord,

       Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,

       And make a suit unto him, to afford

A new small-rented lease, and cancel th’ old.

In heaven at his manor I him sought:

       They told me there, that he was lately gone

       About some land, which he had dearly bought

Long since on earth, to take possession.

I straight returned, and knowing his great birth,

       Sought him accordingly in great resorts;

       In cities, theatres, gardens, parks, and courts:

At length I head a ragged noise and mirth

       Of thieves and murderers: there I him espied,

       Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died.

          I have recently discovered the poetry of George Herbert which reflect, and help to understand the influence of the Protestant Reformation on the individual. It is in this vein of ‘Reformed Spirituality’ (as Gene Edward Veith, Jr. terms it in his book of the same name, ISBN: 978-0838750711) that Herbert writes about the experiential element of Reformed theology.

  

          There are quite a number of negative baggage attached to Reformed theology but I think through Herbert’s poetry, we can begin to understand what Reformed theology is like – not merely through intellectual study or debates, but also as conveyed through our emotions and our experiences.

          I chose this poem for its brevity and simplicity. The narrative is quite straightforward: the persona finds that he is not ‘thriving’ under an ‘old’ order and seeks God in places ‘great’ people can be found in order to become a new ‘Lord’. Instead, he finds this ‘Lord’ in most unlikely circumstances.

          However, through this poem, we can gain plenty of insight into the heart of the Christian understanding of salvation (soteriology). The opening quatrain shows the inadequacy of the ‘Old Covenant’ where the persona is ‘not thriving’. The Old Covenant of the Law cannot redeem us, its function is to show us our sinfulness.

          The second quatrain and the first tercet shows us that God had to come down to earth to redeem us, and that he left his greatness. The climax is in the volta (the turn) in the final tercet. It shows us that God is found among sinners and through his death grants redemption. I think the beauty in that final line is that before the persona, for all his efforts in seeking redemption and trying to find God on his own terms, has time to make his request, Jesus (without hesitation) already granted it through his death which initiated a New Covenant based on grace and not on works.

It was helpful for me to think about the massive truths of God’s salvation in a mere 14 lines: the redemption God ‘dearly bought’ was prepared way before I was even aware of my need for it. This reminds me of Philippians 2:5-8 ‘Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.'

Have we found our redeemer dying among, and for sinners like us, or are we still seeking our own kind of redemption? Let’s consider.