Sacrificial Love (Chapter 3)

When composing and recording my strings and backing tracks for this piece, I immersed myself in one of the most beautifully raw moments in the Bible where we witness a rare glimpse into Jesus’ emotions. As he is deeply troubled in his soul, he is moved to pray in the garden of Gethsemane. Here, Jesus falls to the ground, revealing his deep sorrow and loneliness, yet awe-inspiring willingness to remain steadfast in the plan to endure suffering because he is filled with an unimaginable courage and deep sacrificial love for us. (Inspiration Passage: Matthew 26: 36-46).

Glimpses into the “Sacrificial Love” song writing process:

This song is written from the perspective of Jesus, on the eve before the betrayal. He knew that his Father’s plan was for him to suffer on the cross. I imagined the overwhelming breadth of conflicting emotions he must have felt in his last hours: loneliness, fear and distress of the suffering he was to endure, sadness, and rejection by those he loved. But, this was unparalleled by his faith, obedience, compassion, love for us, and incomprehensible courage.

To witness Jesus pray and ask the Father for any possible reprieve from His plan reveals the precious human side of Jesus. Yet with an unfathomable amount of courage, he still willingly fulfills the plan to sacrifice and die for us.

Particularly striking was the deep loneliness that I imagined Jesus must have felt in the Garden. He asked his closest disciples during this time of soul-wrenching burden, to stay awake to pray for him and to be with him. Yet, because the disciples did not understand the gravity of what was to come, they did not pray nor stay awake.

I found this beautiful passage to be the momentous song that I wanted to use to mark the release of my EP. When the song begins, my hope is that the music brings you to envision Jesus, kneeling underneath the evening sky, amongst the olive groves. When you hear the violins, it is meant to sound like a prayer dialogue of Jesus to the Father, as he outpours all of his powerful feelings. I intentionally have 3 conversational music sections to the song, as Jesus goes to pray three separate times. Each prayer becoming more impassioned, with the music paralleling this, as it builds in intensity. Each moment is marked by him coming back to his disciples, hoping that they were keeping watch with him, yet disappointed to find them obliviously sleeping. As his time in the garden ends, there is this transcendent peacefulness, yet almost unnerving way with which Jesus calmly tells the disciples to follow him as he is about to be betrayed. “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hand of sinners. Rise, let us be going” In the last moments of the song, the notes are no longer rhythmic as the story begins to unravel. And the darkness that was about to begin is represented by the solemn ending note of dissonance.

Violin solos: StoryLight Strings All music composed, played, and produced by: StoryLight Strings Engineer: Benjamin Knapp

Artwork by Oana Seman