Bridge Over Troubled Water
(Hebrews 1: 1-4; 2: 5-12)
The song Bridge Over Troubled Water was written in 1969 by Paul Simon and it came to him so quickly he wondered where it came from and even acknowledged that it didn’t even sound like something he would write. The title concept was inspired by Claude Jeter’s line: “I’ll be your bridge over troubled water if you trust in my name,” which Jeter sang with his group, the Swan Silvertones, in the 1959 song Mary Don’t You Weep. Simon acknowledged that parts of the melody were inspired by Bach’s O Sacred Head, Now Wounded. The song won five awards in the 13th annual Grammy Awards in 1971 including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It is Simon and Garfunkel’s most successful single and is widely considered as their signature song.
It’s hard not to think of this song as divinely inspired if you imagine Jesus Christ speaking it to a troubled soul. Imagine Jesus coming to you and saying: When you’re weary, feeling small, when tears are in your eyes, I’ll dry them all. I’m on your side, when times get rough, and friends just can’t be found. Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down. Verse two continues: When you’re down and out, when you’re on the street, when evening falls so hard I will comfort you. I’ll take your part. When darkness comes, and pain is all around, like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down. Like a bridge over troubled water, I will ease your mind. Gives you chills, doesn’t it? A hymn worthy of inclusion in our hymnal.
And I believe that is what the writer of Hebrews is talking about in his letter to the second-generation Hebrew Christians who may have been considering a return to Judaism. They’d been through a pretty tough time of persecution and ridicule, but still remained faithful to God, but now they are tempted to renounce their life of suffering and dishonor in order to return to their former life, which seemed more honorable and secure than their life as a follower of Jesus Christ, a life fraught with navigating troubled waters. The writer says that in the past, God spoke through the prophets to their ancestors in many times and many ways. He or she says: In these final days, though, he spoke to us through a Son, God made his Son the heir of everything and created the world through him. The Son is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s being. He maintains everything with his powerful message. The writer is telling them that God’s Son is the one who will inherit everything, who participated with the Father in creation, who reflects the brilliance, fame, and honor of God, who is the imprint of the Father, and who holds everything together with his powerful word. The writer continues by telling his audience that after the Son carried out the cleansing of people from their sins, he sat down at the right side of the highest majesty and became so much greater than the other messengers, such as angels, that he received a more important title than theirs. God’s incomplete and scattered communications through the prophets came together in one decisive word, uttered in the Son, not just in what Christ said, but in who Christ is. Christ’s entrance into the heavenly realm announces the glorious destiny of all disciples. But Christ is also the bridge, as it were, by which we cross over to that goal.
Jesus is the one who is now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of his death. He suffered death so that he could taste death for everyone through God’s grace. The writer says: It was appropriate for God, for whom and through whom everything exists, to use experiences of suffering to make perfect the pioneer of salvation. The writer is saying that Christ’s own experiences of pain and shame assures us that our path of discipleship, though filled with experiences of loss and suffering, will also lead to glory, and that our high priest knows from personal experience what we need to arrive there securely. Like Paul Simon wrote: “When you’re weary, feeling small, when tears are in your eyes, I’ll dry them all. I’m on your side. When times get rough and friends just can’t be found, like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down.” Jesus is your bridge to the Father. He will bear your burden for you through your salvation, a salvation that belongs to the many sons and daughters whom he’s leading to glory.
The writer of Hebrews is telling us that if we want to know God, we should look to the Son. This is the one who completed the work of cleansing from sin, and since the work is completed, he is seated beside God in the most honorable position in heaven. You can have no clearer view of God than by looking at Christ. Jesus is the complete expression of God in a human body. Jesus did not come into the world to gain status or political power, but to suffer and die so that we could have eternal life, to be our bridge, to be there when we’re down and out, when we’re on the street, when evening falls so hard. He will be there to comfort us, to take our part. God led Jesus through a path of hardest testing and deepest loss so that Christian disciples would be confident of Jesus’ sympathy and help in their own trials, to be their bridge over troubled waters.
Jesus, the perfect human, experiences what is common to all humans: fragility, suffering, temptation, and death: the troubled waters, for the purpose of destroying evil, and delivering humanity from an enslaving fear of death and bringing many humans, his brothers and sisters, to salvation. These bonds of fear, death, and evil are broken by the sacrificial, atoning death of the perfect high priest, Jesus Christ. Those who experience salvation no longer fear death and are growing in holiness, becoming more like God because they have crossed the bridge over troubled water into a loving relationship with God the Father.
So, when you are confused by present events and anxious about the future, remember Jesus’ true position and authority. He is your bridge. He is Lord of all, and one day he will rule on earth as he does now in heaven. This undeniable truth can give stability to your decisions day by day. He will ease your mind. And it’s our suffering that can make us more sensitive servants of God so that we too can help lead a lost soul to the bridge that will lead them over the troubled waters of their life so that they too can receive the salvation that the many sons and daughters of the Father have already received. So, trust in his name and let him be your bridge over troubled water.
Let us pray.
When the storms of life are raging, stand by us. When the world is tossing us, like a ship upon the sea, thou who rulest wind and water, stand by us. Gracious and loving Father, we pray that during our darkest times, in the midst of our tribulations and when our strength begins to fail that you will stand by us, comforting us with your rod and your staff. We praise you for your Son, our Savior, who you sent to bridge the gap between us, to help us navigate the difficult times in our lives where we fall short of your glory. Move us by your Spirit to make the right decisions in our lives so that we too may lead others to the bridge of Jesus Christ so that they can weather the storms of life and live as you would have them live in service to you and your creation. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
To view live, click link and passcode below
I’ll be your bridge over troubled water if you trust in my name.
https://greaternw.zoom.us/rec/share/-aBAd6Uv1CjW1E1zp58hLDsulj_LEMjxYJxv2lrqHaZVxREOQaXYQv6az819vIAn.jJ5Gu1PlnFnaYd8X?startTime=1728233966000
Passcode: 3DMu4=US