Monday
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son;
endless is the victory Thou o’er death hast won.
Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
kept the folded grave-clothes where Thy body lay.
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son;
endless is the victory Thou o’er death hast won.
BY Monday morning the Easter eggs are on sale and the boom in chocolate sales is passed. But Easter is forever. Jesus is risen! Death is defeated! The best hymns push us back into Scripture, and this hymn picks up the detail in John’s Gospel of angels left looking after carefully folded grave clothes. In John, Jesus speaks of being glorified in his death, and rising again. Easter glory blazes with life, and grave clothes are now redundant. Christian faith is a resurrection faith in the living Lord!
Tuesday
Lo, Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb.
Lovingly He greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
let the church with gladness hymns of triumph sing,
for her Lord now liveth; death hath lost its sting.
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son;
endless is the victory Thou o’er death hast won.
I’m not sure any other Easter hymn has a stronger line declaring Christian comfort and hope in the risen Lord. Christian faith is an encounter with the living, risen Lord Jesus in which we are made alive in Him by the power of the Spirit. The hymn imagines that meeting of human hearts with the loving Presence and life-giving power of the resurrected Lord. The risen Christ calls together a church, a fellowship of believers, a company of the committed, an incendiary fellowship, ignited and united in Christ.
Wednesday
No more we doubt Thee, glorious Prince of life!
Life is naught without Thee; aid us in our strife;
make us more than conquerors, through Thy deathless love;
bring us safe through Jordan to Thy home above.
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son;
endless is the victory Thou o’er death hast won.
The One who scatters fear and gloom brings to every Christian heart a deepening assurance that establishes faith and overcomes doubt. The glorious Prince of Life makes each life worthwhile, gives to life purpose and meaning, so that compared to life in and with Christ, living for ourselves becomes mere existence. “Make us more than conquerors, through thy deathless love” is a one line prayer any time we are struggling. Because the resurrection of Jesus is about life, and a love that will never give up on us, that cannot be extinguished, and that will bring us safely home to God.
Thursday
Love’s redeeming work is done. Hallelujah!
Fought the fight, the battle won. Hallelujah!
Vain the stones, the watch, the seal. Hallelujah!
Christ hath burst the gates of hell. Hallelujah!
The word triumphalist is often used negatively to rebuke those who over-celebrate, or who taunt the losers. Fair enough. But when it is death that is defeated, the grave that is outmanoeuvred, the murderous intent of a world’s sins being borne and overcome, then to quote our earlier hymn, “Let the church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing, for her Lord now liveth, death has lost its sting!” Love’s redeeming work is fulfilled, completed. The world did its worst, and failed to silence the Word of Life. Even hell has no finality for its gates are burst, its locks broken.
Friday
King of glory! Soul of bliss! Hallelujah!
Everlasting life is this: Hallelujah!
Thee to know, Thy power to prove, Hallelujah
Thus to sing, and thus to love. Hallelujah
Wesley deliberately uses the longest word in the verse to convey its own meaning – everlasting. What is everlasting life now that we stand this side of the resurrection? First, to know Jesus in a personal relationship of trusting love. Second, to experience and rely on the power of the risen Jesus in the living of our own lives. Third, to rejoice and sing and live in the confidence that the world’s worst failed, and Christ has burst the gates of hell. Fourth, to love and serve the risen Lord, in grateful service, in glad obedience, and by loving as we have been loved.
Saturday
This joyful Eastertide, away with sin and sorrow.
My Love, the Crucified, has sprung to life this morrow.
Had Christ, who once was slain, not burst his three-day prison,
Our faith would be in vain, but now has Christ arisen!
This hymn deserves to be better known. Once again it pushes us into Scripture, this time Paul’s great argument about the resurrection as the central pillar of Christian hope. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile…But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead…” (1 Cor. 15.17, 20) The fatal consequences of sin and sorrow, away with them! Christ has burst his three day prison, and life is set loose to redeem and save and keep those who believe and trust and receive the life of the risen Lord. Because the ground of all hope is established in that last line, “But now has Christ arisen!” The hymn celebrates the love of God in Christ, and the gift of life in Christ. Then there is the answering love of the repentant, grateful heart of each believer, gladly sung and spoken – “My Love, the Crucified, has sprung to life this morrow.”
Sunday
One with the Father, Ancient of Days
Through the Spirit who clothes faith with certainty
Honour and blessing, glory and praise
To the King crowned with power and authority.
And we are raised with Him
Death is dead, love has won, Christ has conquered
And we shall reign with Him
For He lives, Christ is risen from the dead
“See what a morning” has become an Easter anthem for many of our churches. Some of its lines compare with the best hymn writers, making it hard to choose one verse. I chose the final verse because it sums up Easter and what an Easter way of living might look like. One or two spiritual writers make Easter into a verb – Eastering. It’s a way of describing the Christian life as a perpetual Easter journey, walking with Jesus the risen One, being raised with Him to newness of life. “And we are raised with Him, death is dead, love has won, Christ has conquered.” That too can be a one line prayer in defiance of everything in our world that contradicts life and seeks to frustrate God’s redemptive purpose. A verb is a doing word, and Eastering is what Christians do! We are an Easter people, followers of the crucified and risen Lord.
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