It might have been an Easter Sunday, but as easily could have been any Sunday that helped Matt Maher and Mia Fields generate a song that proclaims “Christ Is Risen”. But since the song was inspired by a 3rd Century sermon by John Chrysostom (see image of this Archbishop of Constantinople here), which was prepared for an Easter celebration, we can feel certain that Matt and Mia were also focused on Easter, even if the premier of the song did not actually fall on that day in 2009 when this contemporary hymn was introduced. Matt relates that this was an extraordinary sermon, not necessarily because of the preacher’s skill, but instead because of the great truths he communicated that day. And so, this 21st Century music-writing pair wanted to echo what John had said some 18 centuries earlier. One doesn’t need to embellish the events to underscore the gravity of what Jesus accomplished. Instead, Matt and Mia seem to want us to revel in what happened to Him. Experience the overflowing joy, while gathered with the church, that we will all one day heed His call to mimic this resurrection.
Matt relates (see video link below, in which he talks about the song’s meaning) that his ancient brother’s words said much to encourage the believer, including that Jesus used ‘death to destroy death’; that ‘Hell was fooled when it swallowed Jesus’ – it thought it had a mere man, but instead ‘encountered God’. Hell ‘took in earth and encountered heaven’. And so, there are echoes of these stunning realities in the words that Matt and his collaborator Mia have composed, including the defeat of death’s sting that the Apostle Paul used in his own words (1 Corinthians 15: 54-55, which were, in fact, echoes of what Isaiah [25:8] and Hosea [13:14] said, centuries before him). And, by accessing a 3rd Century sermon to spur their own lyrics, Matt and Mia have reminded today’s Christ followers that we can celebrate now, but also be struck that we’ll one day rejoice with those of John’s era – in fact all of the saved from all time. ‘Come and rise up from the grave’ is a refrain that is paired with the words ‘Come awake!’ throughout the song, as if we who are still alive are calling out to those who’ve gone on before us; or, maybe we’re all just previewing words that we will long to hear in our own futures – words that Jesus will proclaim in a loud voice, and which no one will be able to resist. When one ponders that all of the human race, from all the millennia that will have lived by Judgement Day, will be there to ‘come awake’, is a ‘Wow!’ really sufficient to express what we’ll all be experiencing? Matt says that the thoughts of Easter cannot be limited to just that particular Sunday, but that all Sundays are opportunities – mini-Easters – for the church to gather and remind each other of this hub of our faith. Indeed, the potency of Easter is so great, that it cannot, and should not be confined to one Lord’s Day of the year.
If Matt and Mia have it correct, perhaps we should be singing Easter-like songs every Sunday! (And, in fact, I think we do where I worship – how about you?) But, just on Sundays? No, every day of the year, even 24/7 would probably not be really enough to tell how important this Christ-rising actually is. One cannot get in touch with this completely until one approaches his own crossing over. Funerals have a unique way of bringing me as a mortal to this unavoidable reality, and they happen to take place on all kinds of days of the year, not just on Sundays. So, if death invades my existence on whatever days it wants to, I need Easter every day on the calendar to counter this. Keep a copy of an Easter song, like this one Matt and Mia have given, nearby. That’ll be my strategy, along with a bookmark to John Chrysostom’s words. As John said from Constantinople to complete his message all those years ago, For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of them that have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.
See the song’s story here: Bing Videos
Read about the 3rd Century church father here: John Chrysostom - Wikipedia
Read about the sermon that inspired the song here: Paschal Homily - Wikipedia
See information about the image here: File:Johnchrysostom.jpg - Wikimedia Commons …This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.
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