Chopin Ballade No. 4 (Op. 52) Interpretation

Beloved Excerpt (Chopin Ballade No. 4).pdf

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Here is an allegorical excerpt that may be in the same "spirit" as Chopin's Fourth Ballade (Op. 52). In it, Joshua, the main character, prays a very grievous, heavy, pained prayer before he lays down his life for his future bride, Paigue. Instead of Chopin's Ballade No. 4 serving as a note-for-note, word-for-word soundtrack of this script, the story that the music carries is moreso in the spirit of the excerpt rather than in the letter. Ultimately, though, I hope that both are a means for you to understand to a greater degree the love that Jesus has for you. You see, Jesus is the Prince of life, the King of Glory, the Beloved. He is the only One who can redeem you from your rebellion. You see, just as a city has its laws, so does God have His laws. After all, the Ten Commandments are the Moral Law. One of the commandments is "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." (Exodus 20:16). In other words, the Ninth Commandment tells us to not lie. Now, have you ever lied? If you say "no", then is that a lie? It's simple, friend. You have told lies (just like me), and this makes you a liar. Next, theft. "Thou shalt not steal." Have you ever stolen something? Ever pirated a video game? Now how about intellectual property? Or glory. What about glory? What you must know is that you will not be judged by how you stand against other men. After all, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God! (Romans 3:23). You will, however, be judged by God's eternal standards. The very One who has painted the sky with all of its gorgeously apparelled colours, the One who has bestowed you with abundant goodness. Every meal you've eaten is a gift from Him. After all, the earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1). And by this standard, you would be guilty of theft. And much more than a lying thief, but a blasphemous fornicator, a murderous persecutor, etc. And you will face God one day. To be judged according to your works is to be judged as such a sinner. Therefore, after you run your course of this world (and we all have a limited shelf life), there would be no recourse for you but hell. Yes, hell. So much worse than any of the filth that Hollywood exudes can portray. You must pay the punishment for your crimes, not against a mayor, not even against our president (and may God bless President Trump), but against God. Someone must pay. And either you will, ... or the Substitute will.

Jesus loves you. He does. But His love is more than just a feeling. It is a relentless self-giving! He gave Himself to be a ransom for all, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, from all our sins, and purify unto Himself a peculiar, set-apart people zealous of good works. He, the Eternal Prince of Glory, stepped down from heaven to live the perfect life for you; He lived the very life you could never have lived, no, not in a thousand lifetimes. And then He died for you. He took not only the punishment of your sins, He not only drank your hell, but He took the guilt and shame and rot of it all. He suffered there, on the cross, and such suffering was so much more than nails and a spear and a wooden cross. This was Perfection incarnate being made a curse, being made sin itself, being forsaken and betrayed by His own, and it was so much worse than you can possibly imagine. He died for all the murderers, all the whoremongers, all the thieves, and, yes, even for all the liberal democrats, out of His own free will. He, the One who never knew sin, was not only placed in the midst of it all, but He was literally made sin for you and I so that we can be made the righteousness of God in Him.

"For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." - 2 Corinthians 5:21.

"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:" - Galatians 3:13.

Then, by His own virtue, He defeated death, conquering it with His own lifeblood, demonstrating that His work on the cross was the finished work for all humanity to behold. And if you will only behold Him, the crucified God dying on a tree, turning from your sins and to Him in repentance and faith, you shall be saved. (John 3:14-17). After all, like all gifts, for such Divine Romance to be yours, you must receive it. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." - Romans 10:13. So do so! Raise up the white flag of your life to Christ, as He raises up the royal flag of His Lordship and dominion over every fiber of your being. Do it, and you shall be saved. Oh, if you only knew His love more! You see, this script excerpt and its "soundtrack" (i.e. Chopin Ballade No. 4), are still jointly insufficient for demonstrating the pain that Jesus chose to endure on the cross for you (yes, you, at the individual level; after all, God is more than infinite, so one person's infinite worth compared to a hundred billion trillion people's infinite worth would still be taken up as nothing compared to Christ's exceeding, more-than-infinite power, glory, holiness, and love). But, please, may the LORD use both the excerpt and its song for you to understand more of the cost that He chose to pay for you in sacrificing Himself for us. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

For context, this is an excerpt from a larger project: Beloved.

Brief Synopsis of Beloved:

Lord Joshua, the Prince, the King’s Son, is the Sovereign Ruler of Learsi, a land set in both the third dimension (that is, the physical world) and the seventh dimension (that is, the unseen realm). Between the third and seventh dimensions lies the mist: a kind of interworld between the two. Although Lord Joshua cares very much about the people of Learsi, they have not had direct contact with him for some four hundred years. During this time, the land has been conquered by an invasion from without and a rebellion from within (in fact, if it wasn’t for the help from the rebellion, the invasion might have never conquered Learsi). Since then, life has greatly changed for the people of Learsi. Only a few stay loyal to the King (they’re called the “loyalists”). The rest are the rebels. Now, the new rulers of Learsi have been trying to stabilize and validate their power over her (as they hope to do with the entire world). To do this, they must purge Learsi from her old system of governance through royally-appointed elders. Samuel Lampart was one such elder. At the beginning of the story, he passes away, and his family (now made up of three daughters in/around their twenties) are naturally grieved: with both their father and their mother dead, who do they have left? Rachel and Elizabeth, the two eldest, stay loyal to the Prince. Paigue, however, (she’s the youngest) becomes confederate with the Rebellion. Because of this, the curse is upon her. This is how it works: every time someone breaks one of the King's Laws, he or she loses some of his or her humanity. Gradually, this individual would turn from a human into a beast, and with this transformation comes destructive and suicidal tendencies. At the end of this wide gate and broad way is the pit. That is, upon death, such individuals would die and go to a horrid, wretched place where they would lose all of their humanity and fully become a beast left with no recourse but complete and conscious suffering, incessant inflaming, pain and despair, burning and brokenness, and wailing and gnashing of teeth. This is the fate of Paigue. However, Joshua, the Prince, loves her. He doesn't want her to suffer this horrible fate. So what he does is that he comes to Learsi to set everything right and to turn Paigue's heart and her loyalty back to the King. Beloved details Paigue’s journey as she turns from Joshua’s enemy to his beloved, freeing her from her beastliness to be his bride.

But the problem is this: justice must be atoned for. Her crimes must be paid. Holiness can by no means be compromised. So how can Joshua be the justifier of Paigue while still remaining just? After all, justice demands her death. Paigue has already given her allegiance to the rebellion, and now her end ought to be the under-pit. Justice demands payment. Throughout this project, Beloved details how Paigue not only turns from her rebellion to the King, but also how Joshua subsequently saves her from her punishment to his prize, redeeming her from her death to his glory. Occasionally in the scripts, musical works are referenced: these may be profitable in setting the “mood” of a certain part of the story. I hope you enjoy.

Note: This is an insufficient allegory.