At the Cross

Why do so many of our most popular hymns about the cross have such bright, peppy tunes to accompany them? Certainly because the cross is not ultimately a scene of defeat, but of victory. Still, I feel the need to be reminded on this Good Friday that what happened at Calvary was a brutal execution where our perfect Messiah literally poured out his blood for us. It was not a pretty scene, just as my sin which was washed away at the cross is not pretty.

A Baptist favorite, "At the Cross," is one such hymn which sings about the brutality of the cross with a light and happy tune as it calls to mind the good news of our redemption. But the song we sing is based originally on an Isaac Watts poem which leaves us at the blood-stained foot of the cross. Just for a moment, I ask that the Lord will lead you to linger at the cross and experience the heights of love which our Savior displayed on that first dark, bloody, horrendous, Good Friday. Easter Sunday will come, but not before the darkness of Friday and the emptiness of the longest Sabbath Day in history.

Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed
By Isaac Watts

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such as worm as I?

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His Soul in anguish stood.

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do.