"The bands of death are torn away, the yawning tomb gives back its prey."

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Charles Wesley wrote several resurrection hymns. The one I have chosen here is from a 1746 collection. Wesley declares that that God's power, which is love and life, is more powerful than death. The tomb cannot contain the Lord of life.

Christ crucified and risen has defeated sin and death. Our sins are forgiven. We are set free to live his life of love in and for the world that he loves and intends to save.

On this day of Resurrection, I pray that the Church of Jesus Christ will take to heart Wesley's call to faithfully respond to the good news that the one who was crucified is risen:

Haste then, ye souls that first believe,
Who dare the gospel-word receive,
Your faith with joyful hearts confess,
Be bold, be Jesus’ witnesses.

A Resurrection Hymn

All ye that seek the Lord who died,
Your God for sinners crucified,
Prevent the earliest dawn, and come
To worship at his sacred tomb.

While thus ye love your souls t’ employ,
Your sorrow shall be turned to joy:
Now, now let all your grief be o’er!
Believe; and ye shall weep no more

An earthquake hath the cavern shook,
And burst the door, and rent the rock,
The Lord hath sent his angel down,
And he hath rolled away the stone.

The third auspicious morn is come,
And calls your Saviour from the tomb,
The bands of death are torn away,
The yawning tomb gives back its prey.

Could neither seal nor stone secure,
Nor men, nor devils make it sure?
The seal is broke, the stone cast by,
And all the powers of darkness fly.

The body breaths, and lifts his head,
The keepers sink, and fall as dead;
The dead restored to life appear,
The living quake, and die for fear.

No power a band of soldiers have
To keep one body in its grave:
Surely it no dead body was
That could the Roman eagles chase.

The Lord of life is ris’n indeed,
To death delivered in your stead;
His rise proclaims your sins forgiven,
And shows the living way to heaven.

Haste then, ye souls that first believe,
Who dare the gospel-word receive,
Your faith with joyful hearts confess,
Be bold, be Jesus’ witnesses.

Go tell the followers of your Lord
Their Jesus is to life restored;
He lives, that they his life may find;
He lives, to quicken all mankind.

Charles Wesley, 1746