Charles & 'The School of the Cross'

I've been reading through Charles Wesley: Life, Literature & Legacy, edited by Kenneth Newport and Ted Campbell. The book is very helpful as it presents Charles as a theologian in his own right and not to be seen solely through the lens of his older brother, John. This is demonstrated in the 28 chapters that come from the pens (or keyboards, I suppose we should say) of more than 25 Wesley scholars who write on the various theological, historical, and personal aspects of Charles' life. One chapter that stands out in particular to me, as a student of atonement theology, is the one brought forth from John R. Tyson, "'I preached at the Cross, as usual': Charles Wesley and Redemption".

I won't regurgitate everything spelled out by Tyson here, but I did want to draw attention to a helpful insight that seems appropriate to draw out in the Lenten season and that is his a section where Tyson talks about the school of the cross. This is not something about academia, but he's drawing upon language from Charles that speaks about the Christian's life as learning the way of the cross. Tyson begins, "For Charles Wesley the cross was not only God's decisive act in the history of redemption, it became the pattern for the Christian's life as well." He adds, "By observing and participating in Christ's sufferings, Christians come to 'know him,' they begin to partake of his Spirit, and are thereby prepared for their own victory over death and for the life to come." This is demonstrated in Charles' lyrics. For instance:

We now who Jesus' spirit breathe
The ills of life with patience bear,
With joy receive the stroke of death,
With faith expect his rise to share,
His victory o'er the gaping tomb,
And live His endless life to come.

and...

While I thus my Pattern view,
I shall bleed and suffer too,
With the man of sorrows join'd
One become in heart and mind.

More and more like Jesus grow,
Till the Finisher I know,
Gain the final Victor's wreath,
Perfect love in perfect death.

and further still...

Thy suffering, Lord, doth mine imply
And binds me on thy cross to die.

The term 'Pattern' above should stand out as an indicator of an important influence upon the Wesleys: The Christian Pattern, (or The Imitation of Christ) from Thomas a Kempis, a work that John extracted and published for his English readers. This hardly exhausts the Wesleys' approach to redemption, but it does draw out an important facet of the cross that is often lacking in many presentations today of the Atonement and its implications: that in Jesus' speaking of his own impending path toward the cross, he bids his disciples/students to 'take up your cross' and follow him. This prepares us, as Tyson suggests, for our own "victory over death."

Jon Foreman, in his Winter EP, has somewhat portrayed this notion of the 'school of the cross' in the lyrics of 'Learning how to Die' when he speaks of realizing that life is not about taking, accessing, laughing, but about learning how to give, cry, and die. A most appropriate song for Lent: