Open thread for Sunday, March 24th: The Mercy Seat

 Here is the open thread for Sunday, March 24th; please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues may arise during the course of the day.

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  Tonight my son and I are going to Boston to see one of my favorite artists–Nick Cave–perform at the Orpheum theater.

  Nick Cave has not toured the United States in several years and the last time he did the closest he came was New York so I had given up on the thought of ever seeing him live until just recently.

  I am very excited about this show so I thought I would share with you the ultimate Nick Cave song, it is entitled ‘The Mercy Seat.’

  The Mercy Seat is about a man on death row for allegedly committing murder, although he claims he is “nearly wholly innocent” of said crime. The song starts out slow with a crescendo building slowly throughout culminating when the subject is led into the mercy seat.

It began when they come took me from my home
And put me in Dead Row,
Of which I am nearly wholly innocent, you know.
And I’ll say it again
I..am..not..afraid..to..die.

  While on death row he begins to read the Bible and learn about Jesus and while he maintains his innocence the song alternates between what he is learning about God and what he did in his past, but as we can see in the last line below he is still a little skeptical at this point.

I began to warm and chill
To objects and their fields,
A ragged cup, a twisted mop
The face of Jesus in my soup

And the mercy seat is waiting

I hear stories from the chamber
How Christ was born into a manger
And like some ragged stranger
Died upon the cross
And might I say it seems so fitting in its way
He was a carpenter by trade

  As the song continues it becomes apparent that the subject is indeed guilty although he tries to separate himself from the crime by declaring he has a “good hand” and an “evil hand” but he does place some blame on “the good hand” for not resisting his “evil hand”

Like my good hand I
tatooed E.V.I.L. across it’s brother’s fist
That filthy five! They did nothing to challenge or resist.

My kill-hand is called E.V.I.L.
Wears a wedding band that’s G.O.O.D.
`Tis a long-suffering shackle collaring all that rebel blood’

  It is interesting to note that his “kill-hand” wears the “wedding band that’s good,” perhaps trying again to deflect the blame by placing some of the blame on the victim  and giving us a glimpse into his motive for the crime, but he keeps coming back to what he is learning about God on death row. 

  As the story continues the subject begins to compare the Mercy Seat in heaven to what he now sees as the mercy seat on earth–the electric chair.

In Heaven His throne is made of gold
The ark of his Testament is stowed
A throne from which I’m told
All history does unfold.
Down here it’s made of wood and wire
And my body is on fire
And God is never far away.

    At this point the subject still denies his guilt, but while he still claims he is not afraid to die he begins to waiver.

And anyway there was no proof
Nor a motive why.

  No longer is he professing his innocence, instead he says there is no motive for the crime and no proof he did it, this leads us to believe he is guilty and when he finally climbs into the mercy seat he admits the truth.

But I’m afraid I told a lie

At this point he confesses he has been lying as he goes “shuffling out of life just to hide in death awhile” and he meets his fate.

  The song ends leaving us to wonder about his fate in death: was this final admission an act of repentance for which he could be forgiven, or was he only  admitting he was in fact afraid to die and face God’s judgement for his crimes without truly repenting?

  A brilliantly written song in my opinion, enjoy, I know I will!