We are in and around the season so many people call ‘Easter’, yet so many of ‘the many’,
know but little of what Easter really means! It is the season where Jesus’ ‘Death and
Resurrection’, is the only ‘true reason’ for celebration! It seems strange that we might call
Jesus’ ‘Death’ as well as His ‘Resurrection’, a reason to celebrate, but without His Death
on the Cross there would have been no forgiveness of sins, and without His Resurrection
there would be no real hope of heaven! Easter, despite what many think, has little or
nothing to do with ‘Chocolate Eggs’, and ‘Bunny Rabbits’, but all to do with the death and
glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ – and through it all – ‘Eternal Life’. The Apostle Luke
would write, Acts 2: 24, “…it was not possible for Him (Jesus) to be held by it (Death)” .
Perhaps, this is what Pastor Robert Lowry was thinking about during the Easter season
of 1874, when he wrote the Hymn ‘Christ Arose’. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in
1846, Lowry would graduate from Bucknell University and would pastor Baptist churches in
Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City and Brooklyn. The preaching of God’s Word would, of
course, be his main interest throughout his life, but he did have a second love, and that was
the study of music and hymn-writing.
During the course of his life, he wrote hymns, such as ‘Shall We Gather at the River’,
‘Nothing But the Blood of Jesus’, and he also wrote music for hymns such as ‘We’re Marching
to Zion’, and ‘I need Thee every hour’. Together, all of this would eventually lead to his
writing of a hymn specially for Easter. Pastor Lowry recorded the fact that as he was reading
the account of Christ’s resurrection in Luke 24: 6-8, when the words of the angel speaking to
Mary at the empty tomb, struck him as never before, “He is not here, but is risen”. It
caused him to go to his old pump organ in the parlor of his home; and in a matter of minutes,
he had written and composed the music for a new hymn, ‘CHRIST AROSE’! Twenty-five
years later, Robert Lowry, aged 73, realized first-hand the glorious truth of his Easter hymn
when God graciously took him home to Heaven.
‘He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints
to reign, He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! CHRIST AROSE!’.
I would encourage you all to read Luke’s Gospel chapters 23 and 24.
