Thoughts on the Divine Service
7. The Kyrie
Dear friends,
As Jesus departs from raising a little girl from the dead, two blind men follow and cry out. Their first words to Him are, “Have mercy on us, Son of David” (Matthew 9:7). In Matthew 15, a Canaanite woman finds Jesus and cries out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon” (Matthew 15:22). In Luke 17:13, it’s the ten lepers who lift their voices to say, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” All of these, and many more, call out to Jesus, “Have mercy!”
What else do they have in common?
For one thing, each needs a miracle, help that only He can supply.
For another, none of them are in a position to give Him anything in return. The blind men cannot work, so they are destitute. The Canaanite woman can’t even claim to be a fellow Jew, and the lepers aren’t even allowed to approach.
They have nothing, and they need everything; so they cry out to Jesus, “Lord, have mercy.”
After the Service of the Word begins with the Introit, a psalm to remind us we are coming into the presence of our Lord, what is the first thing we cry out and sing?
“Lord, have mercy.” In Greek, “Kyrie, eleison.”
Why?
For one thing, we need help that only He can supply. Only the Lord can forgive our sins, strengthen our faith and deliver us to everlasting life. Only the triune God works such miracles.
For another, none of us have anything to give Him in return. We’ve just said so! We’ve just confessed our abject sinfulness and unworthiness in the Service of Confession, declaring to the Lord Himself that we have nothing in us or our possessions that we can trade for His assistance.
This means that, if the Lord is going to help us, He is going to help us because He is merciful.
The good news is that He is merciful. Our cries for mercy are not a desperate plea to a stoic king passing by, trying to outshout other supplicants and hoping to catch his attention before he’s out of earshot. Our cry is a confident prayer that the Lord keeps His promises. He hears the prayers of His people. He forgives their sins and gives them life.
That plea for mercy, then, is also a confession of God’s mercy. In singing the Kyrie, we proclaim that God is merciful and remind ourselves that we are undeserving recipients.
When does the Lord answer that prayer? He begins right away because He is just as with us as with those blind men, the Canaanite woman and the lepers. Present in His means of grace, He will spend the rest of the service, by Word and Sacrament, forgiving sins, cleansing consciences, strengthening faith, thwarting evil and bestowing life. We ask, and He gives … because He is merciful.
The Kyrie takes on different forms in different Divine Services. Divine Service 4 is the simplest, “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy,” identifying Jesus as merciful Yahweh. Divine Service 3 adds “upon us” at the end of each phrase, emulating the ten lepers and also fitting into the tune that Martin Luther used. Divine Service 1 makes use of a five-fold Kyrie in which we pray for God’s mercy as we name all aspects of life; and Divine Service 5 features Hymn 942. Hymns 943-945 are Kyries as well.
Whatever the form of the Kyrie in worship, it’s a prayer of joyful expectation. As Luther once remarked, “We are beggars with empty sacks” before the Lord. In the Divine Service, the Lord fill us up with abundant grace and life. What joy!