If I were to count the number of hymns in my lifetime repertoire that center on the cross as compared to resurrection hymns the cross wins hands-down. When I Survey, At the Cross, The Old Rugged Cross, At Calvary, Blessed Redeemer, and In the Cross of Christ I Glory are just a few of the dozens of hymns that I can sing without the hymnal. These “cross” hymns are in addition the number of hymns that I know about the death, the blood, the suffering, the “price he paid” and so on. As a child and as an adult in Baptist Churches we sing these hymns all throughout the year, whatever the season.
Resurrection hymns are more scarce. I know the big ones: Christ the Lord is Risen Today, He Arose, He Lives, and The Day of Resurrection. These are the big four from my childhood, and since then I have learned a few more, but not too many. These are the hymns for Easter Sunday, and then as we journey on into springtime and approach Mother’s Day these Easter hymns are left behind. I never remember singing Christ the Lord is Risen Today except for Easter Sunday. I guess we think that it just wouldn’t fit.
I think our hymnody and our practice of hymn singing say a lot about our belief, and if our singing states what is most important to us it would appear that the cross/suffering/death/“price he paid” theme is our defining event.
And yet we worship each week on the first day of the week, not on Friday. This arranging of our calendars is a bold statement that we are defined not by what happened on Friday, but what happened on Sunday. Resurrection is the center of our belief, the center of the entire Jesus event, and is our only hope as Christians and humans.
Every Sunday is a “mini-Easter” for the church. We gather on the first day of the week 52 times per year to be reminded that he is risen and to celebrate that in Christ God has conquered death, sin, and the grave. Christ is the first-fruit of the resurrection, and therefore we shall all experience new life too. This is our reason for gathering each week, to tell the story in a new and different way. But let us not be confused, we tell the gospel story, the good news of resurrection.
The cross is a central theme in our faith. Because of humankind’s sinfulness Jesus was killed on a cruel Roman cross. This act of love and sacrifice defines who God is and who we are in God’s economy. But to end at the cross is shortsighted and premature. We are people of hope, of life, and of resurrection. Because of this death is never the final word. Because of resurrection the worst news is never the last news. It may be the next-to-the-last-news, but the final word with God is always life.
It may be Monday (or Friday, theologically speaking), but remember, Sunday is coming.