Dark was the night, and cold the ground
On which the Lord was laid;
His sweat like drops of blood ran down;
In agony He prayed.
"Father, remove this bitter cup,
If such Thy sacred will;
If not, content to drink it up
Thy pleasure I fulfill."
Go to the garden, sinner, see
Those precious drops that flow;
The heavy load He bore for thee;
For thee He lies so low.
Then learn of Him the cross to bear;
Thy Father's will obey;
And when temptations press thee near,
Awake to watch and pray.
“Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground” is arguably Willie Johnson’s most iconic song. I am indebted to Brad Smith for his article in the Society for American Music’s journal that details Johnson’s life, the origin of the song and, in particular, how the song came to be chosen for inclusion on Voyager’s “Golden Record”. In the late nineteen seventies, before I was even born, the USA sent two spacecraft on a one-way mission out into the far reaches of the galaxy. In case anyone was out there, NASA included information about Earth and human culture, including a golden record with 87 minutes of music on it. Johnson’s recording of “Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground” was chosen to be the penultimate song on that record, which was unable to find a place for music from artists as famous as Tchaikovsky and Elvis Presley. The music was to represent the cultures of the world and be of a quality that both touches the heart and mind. Johnson’s song appears to touch the heart uniquely and profoundly.1
The song I first heard with this title is actually a different song. I heard it on the 2016 compilation album that introduced me to Johnson; it was sung by Rickie Lee Jones, and it has the lyrics that I quoted above. These lyrics come from a hymn written by Thomas Haweis that was originally titled “Gethsemane”, which recounts the story of Jesus praying in the garden that goes by that name on the night he was betrayed and then handed over to be tried and executed by the Romans. I appreciate Jones’s take on the song, and if I am interpreting her approach correctly, I suspect she chose to pay homage and respect to Johnson’s song by not trying to emulate it but just letting it be. Her version of the song is simple, accompanied by an acoustic guitar, but there is no slide guitar; rather, the song ends with a trombone solo fade out.
Although derived from the hymn, Johnson’s song recording essentially had no lyrics. Johnson does sing, but apart from the odd word that is barely discernable, the singing is in wordless groans. This, perhaps more than any of Johnson’s songs, is one where his slide guitar carries the load of the singing. I do not know if I can explain what is happening in the song; the song must be experienced. All I can do is attempt to convey the emotions that arise in me as I listen to it. I sense a feeling of awe and wonder, like gazing into the stars on a clear night, whilst also feeling the pain and loneliness that can come with the human experience. The height of human experience in relation to the divine is the setting of the song.
The scene of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is probably well-known even to those who are not particularly familiar with the entire account of Jesus’ life. It is in this garden that Jesus prays in anguish, with sweat like drops of blood hitting the ground. Later in that scene, he receives a kiss from Judas, and Peter cuts the ear off one of the temple guards only to hear Jesus tell him to put the sword away before he heals the guard’s ear. These events are etched into our very language, and it is why we speak of a “kiss of death” or remind people that those who “live by the sword will die by the sword”. In Christian theology, the scene in the garden is of particular importance.
For Christians, Jesus is worshipped as God and acknowledged as the second person of the Trinity. Much of the internal debates Christians had for the first few centuries following the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus were related to understanding who he was and is. These debates were largely carried out using the Greek philosophical language of the day, and for many modern people, these can seem tedious and difficult to follow. The majority view became that the one person, Jesus, had a divine nature and a human nature. By the seventh century, a man named Maximus claimed Jesus, having two natures, also had two wills. This being so, Jesus’ decision to obey the Father’s will in the garden is a human decision; thus, what is happening in the garden is the ultimate participation of the human will in the divine life without any competition.2 Some people did not like Maximus’ idea, and he was condemned as a heretic, having his tongue cut out and his right arm cut-off. However, within a couple of decades of his death, he was posthumously declared innocent, and his view became mainstream. To this day, theologians are drawing inspiration from Maximus’ writings, much like musicians do from Blind Willie Johnson’s recordings.
Johnson was a gifted musician who had many struggles in life. His music and the details we know of his life make it clear that his faith in God shaped him. We should not be surprised that when he comes to sing a song about the anguish of the God-man, the pain of the truly human one, the one he knew as his Lord and his Saviour, words cannot suffice. As the Apostle Paul says: “we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
I have nothing more to say.
Brad Smith, ‘Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground”’, The Bulletin of the Society for American Music XLI, no. No.2 (Spring 2015) (28 October 2016), https://web.archive.org/web/20161028084226/http://american-music.org/publications/bulletin/vol412.pdf.
Robert W (Robert William) Jenson, ‘Jesus in the Trinity’, Pro Ecclesia 8, no. 3 (1999): for more on Maximus and the importance of the moment in Gethsemane, Jenson’s essay is recommended reading.