This hymn is the Easter favourite of my 102 year old aunt. She still lives by herself in her flat in a retirement complex and has longed for Heaven ever since her husband died of a heart attack over 40 years ago while he was going to work on a bus.
My aunt endures great physical suffering. She lost her sight many years ago and only knows where the window is because there is a bit less darkness when she’s facing towards it. She is in constant pain with arthritis in her spine and many other joints. She has Restless Leg Syndrome and can’t settle in bed at night. Skin cancer near her ear is not going to be treated and gives her constant irritation.
Yet she knows the truth of St Paul’s words to the Corinthians,
“Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
(2 Cor 4v16).
Her Faith is enduring; having sung in the choir at the Billy Graham rallies in the 1950’s, prepared Sunday School materials to send to missionary friends in Africa and sung many solos in church, she still listens via the telephone to the Sunday service at her local church and prays for many of the residents in her retirement complex.
She knows that it is because of the Resurrection of Jesus that we can celebrate This Joyful Eastertide and that with sins forgiven she will not only meet her husband once more, but that she will also see Jesus’ face with undarkened eyes, free from pain and sorrow.
Although only 2 verses are printed in our Congregational Praise #726, the three verses here tell the Joy of Easter, that:
• Sin and sorrow will be gone because He who was crucified has sprung to Life.
• Death’s flood has lost it’s chill because Jesus is the other side.
• The dead in Christ lie in hope awaiting the trumpet call to awaken them.
For as the chorus says:
Had Christ that once was slain,
ne’er burst His three-day prison,
Our Faith had been in vain,
but now is Christ arisen,
arisen, arisen, Arisen!
This of course comes from 1 Cor 15v17-20:
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.
If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But ... Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."
Not only may my aunt, but this Eastertide may you also, continue to know the Wonderous Glory of Good Friday and the Explosive Joy of Easter Sunday.
Had Christ that once was slain,
ne’er burst His three-day prison,
Our Faith had been in vain,
but now is Christ Arisen!
Hallellujah!
Ian Jones
Comments