Who’s your favorite Christian artist? What about your favorite praise song? Hillsong, Elevation, Maverick City, Bethel, the list could go on. But one often overlooked genre is hymns. Perhaps they seem stuffy, old-fashioned, not as vibe-y, etc., but hymns often capture basic biblical truths in a way that contemporary praise doesn’t always fully capture.

George Bennard and “The Old Rugged Cross”

Every month in our devotion books, we have a hymn of the month for us to learn and reflect on. This month, in light of Good Friday and Easter, we’re learning and singing “The Old Rugged Cross” written by George Bennard in 1915. Bennard was an Evangelist who traveled throughout the midwest and at one of the revivals, he was heckled incessantly by a group of youth. This experience deeply troubled Bennard as he saw a blatant disregard for the gospel and from there came to the undeniable conclusion that the work of Christ was inseparable from the cross. It was from this clarifying moment that the long and arduous journey of the birth of this hymn began, taking almost three years before completion.

Reflection on the Hymn

The words of the hymn allow the singer and listeners to focus on how Christ’s death on the cross show the depth of God’s love for humanity and the lengths Christ took to save us from our sins.

The refrain goes like this:

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,
till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
and exchange it some day for a crown.

A pledge to cherish the old rugged cross: an “emblem of suffering and shame,” “despised by the world,” “stained with blood so divine.” And we experience this by laying down all the other things we cherish — our trophies — the things we’ve worked hard to earn, the things that make us shine to the world and those around us. It seems counterintuitive doesn’t it? But it’s through this experience of recognizing that the trophies of life fall short of what this old rugged cross has to offer if we only cling to it.

What the Cross Shows Us

The hymn essentially captures Bennard’s favorite, and maybe the most well-known verse in the Bible, John 3:16 — For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

As we approach Good Friday and Easter, let’s hang onto the words of this hymn that help us remember what a miracle and what a gift this cross is: how it shows the depth of human sin, and yet at the same time the great depth of God’s love for us.