Right around the time everyone starts reaching for their green shirts and paper shamrock glasses, a familiar set of quotes by St. Patrick begin popping up around Christian social media feeds. The most popular hymn and prayer, sometimes referred to as “St. Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer” boasts beautiful lines of devotion and worship. It finishes out the lyrics exclaiming, “Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left.” While St. Patrick’s true history boasts a deep faith and resounding trust in Christ, scholars concede the prayer was most likely not written by Patrick himself. Still, the Irish blessing and those gripping words regarding Christ speak an important comfort for you and me today.
Christ Before Me
Most of the time, we probably think about Christ being before us. After all, he serves as the model for us to imitate and the goal for which we strive. Paul encouraged the churches to imitate him as he imitates Christ (1 Cor. 11:1). Yet Christ goes before us not only as a model but also as the object our hearts yearn for. He is the bread of life—the manna in the wilderness. Christ is the living water the woman at the well so desperately needed. He is the great treasure we find in a field and long to possess. As sons and daughters, we long each day to know him more, to receive more of his grace, to understand more of his nature, and to glimpse more of his beauty. As we continue to look ahead to Christ, we see the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Heb. 1:3). Our Savior stands before us, as the God we earnestly seek to know more (Ps. 63:1).
The fact that Christ goes before us also fills us with so much hope. Right after the author of Hebrews recounts the faithfulness of past saints during trials, he encourages the reader in similar difficulties to “fix our eyes on Jesus” (Heb. 12:2). Keeping Jesus firmly in our vision reminds us of the hope we have in him. We know nothing can happen to us without his sovereign hand. If you’re fearing the future or stuck in grief that feels insurmountable, remember Christ is before you. He offers real hope for you and me. One day, all sin will be destroyed, creation will be reconciled, and Christ truly will wipe away our last tear.
Christ Behind Me
While it’s good to know Christ is before us, we mustn’t forget the importance of remembering Christ is also behind us. The very reason we can have hope in our darkness is because of what Christ has already done. Christ was born, lived a perfect life, and took the punishment for our sin in his death on the cross. All creation will be reconciled because of the blood Jesus shed for you and me (Col. 1:19–20). This act is already completed and our future is already secured. Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee for us to one day to experience our own resurrection (Rom. 6:4–5). His righteousness has already been imputed to his children and gives us peace and hope today.
This perspective of the past is necessary even as we seek to obey our Father. We should imitate Christ, but we must do so in the reality of what Christ has already done. We walk in the glorious light only because our Savior has already called us out of darkness. He has gone behind us, giving us redemption, a new heart, and making us a new creation. This means we can stop striving on our own to be good enough. We need not scramble like the rich young man, eager to prove ourselves by our works. Instead, we walk each day in the past work of Christ. And when guilt begins to press in, we exclaim that Christ is behind us—forgiving our sin with his death and covering every lurking sin from the past with his precious blood.
Christ On My Right, Christ On My Left
While we can see the hope Christ gives us ahead, and the surety of the past, we’ll also find our Savior beside us. God doesn’t leave his people. While other deistic religions believed the gods created and abandoned man to their own devices, the true God couldn’t be farther from this reality. Yahweh seeks after his people, he draws them to himself, and he keeps them in his possession (Gen. 28:15; Ps. 121:5; Job 10:12). While you and I stumble and fall, our gentle Shepherd takes us by the hand to guide us. While tears slip down our cheeks, our Lord is beside us, collecting them in a bottle (Ps. 56:8). The Son of God became incarnate, living and experiencing everything as a human so that he could be our compassionate High Priest (Heb. 4:15), and through his Holy Spirit he continues to walk beside us through every up and down of our lives. We don’t walk alone.
The lines from St. Patrick’s prayer remind us to consider not only one aspect of Christ and his work but every single aspect at once. Jesus told us the same when he called his disciples to abide in him (John 15:4–11). When we abide in Christ, we will see him before us, behind, and beside us. We’ll walk each day, knowing he hemmed in our past by reconciling us to God by his sacrifice. We’ll wake up each day knowing we live, work, and even mourn in the strength and comfort of his Spirit. And we’ll fix our eyes on the radiance of God that reminds us we await a glorious future with our treasured Savior.
Christ before us. Christ behind us. Christ to our right and Christ to our left. Today, right now, and every day to come.
