Thought for the Week - 16th April 2023

Dear Friends, 

One of the great Easter hymns is The strife is o‘er, the battle done. American hymnologist Leonard Ellinwood traces the origins of the hymn to a book of compositions in 1695, and John Mason Neale, a British translator of Latin and Greek hymnody, included the Latin text with his translation, whilst it was Francis Pott, a hymnwriter and priest in the Anglican church in the late 1800s who translated the hymn as we know it today and was included in the hymnal Hymns Ancient and Modern.

              The strife is o’er, the battle done;             The powers of death have done their worst,

            the victory of life is won;                             but Christ their legions has dispersed.

            the song of triumph has begun.                Let shouts of holy joy outburst.

            Alleluia!                                                          Alleluia!

 

            The three sad days are quickly sped;      He closed the yawning gates of hell;

            he rises glorious from the dead.                the bars from heavens high portals fell.

            All glory to our risen Head.                         Let hymns of praise his triumph tell.

            Alleluia!                                                          Alleluia!

 

Lord, by the stripes that wounded thee,

from death’s dread sting thy servant’s free,

that we may live and sing to thee.

Alleluia!

From Hymnary.org, we read of this hymn, ‘There is, in this text, a sense of finality. This, in a very real sense, is it. “It is finished.” Albert Bailey writes, “The words present the theological statement that the Crucifixion was a contest between Christ and the devil’s legions, in which Christ won. This is proved by the fact that Christ did not stay dead” (The Gospel in Hymns, 278). Christ rose and brought new life, and in so doing, through his declaration, “It is finished,” was also saying, “It has all just begun!” The finality of this text is the finality of newness. It is the realization that we are continually being made new, that Creation in continually being restored, and that every day we are called to life anew with Christ. Alleluia. What a song of victory that is!’

Grace and peace,

Neil

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