Exchanging the Old Rugged Cross for a Crown

Wayne Ward, 1932-2015

I'm listening today to a Southern Gospel Radio collection on Pandora, in honor of my father-in-law, Wayne Ward. He loved listening to southern gospel and bluegrass music. He wore out countless tapes during his years riding the gravel roads of rural Pike County, Illinois, delivering the mail to his neighbors in snow, rain, heat, and gloom of night.

When his two oldest kids were teenagers, he organized a family band to travel all over, performing the music he loved. It was during those years that Karen, my wife, his daughter, polished that rousing southern gospel piano style she's still known for.

Among the songs Pandora queued up for my listening enjoyment today has been more than one version of the venerable standard, The Old Rugged Cross. In just two hours of listening, I've heard the song three times, by three different artists.

I have to confess I was not fond of The Old Rugged Cross for many years. This was entirely due to hearing it played and sung at a funereal pace. I've known it to take 15 minutes and more to make it through the entire song.

This is really a shame, because it's a brilliant song of celebration. Try to wipe your embedded memories of the song as you've heard it, and take a look at those lyrics. It's not intended to be a sad song, but a song of joy and celebration.

We think it's supposed to be somber because it talks about the cross as an 'emblem of suffering and shame.' But doesn't Paul say 'we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance '(Romans 5:3)? Songs about glorying tend to be rousing, not drowsing.

The songwriter says, 'and I love that old cross where the dearest and best, for a world of lost sinners was slain.' I suspect the traditional dirge-like pacing of the song has much to do with its topic of a cruel death on the torturous cross. But Paul, again, has a different perspective: 'May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)' When's the last time you heard a boasting song that didn't have some swagger and attitude?

The words of the song itself belie the somber treatment it seems to engender in so many. These are not regretful, weepy words:

'Oh, that old rugged cross, so despised by the world, Has a wondrous attraction for me'

'In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, A wondrous beauty I see'

'Its shame and reproach gladly bear'

The only reason to sing those words with mournful regret is if we don't actually believe what we're singing. It's a song of love and a song of triumphant victory, as the chorus affirms:

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 someday for a crown.

Let me tell you, when I exchange the cross for a crown of victory, I'm going to be dancing and pumping my fists into the air.

When the ladies in our Monday night congregation request 'The Old Rugged Cross', as they often do, some of them are a bit surprised at the pace and rhythm I set with my guitar, but they should know that I'm actually holding back. I'd love to sing that song with the same vigor and excitement we reserve for 'I'll Fly Away' and 'Awesome God' and 'Rockin' in the House of God'.

I don't know how my father-in-law preferred to hear and sing 'The Old Rugged Cross.' I suspect he enjoyed it no matter how it was performed, as he certainly must have heard it presented over and over again at all those concerts and festivals he attended.

On Sunday night he joined my Mom and Dad on heaven's front porch. I picture my Dad playing ‘The Old Rugged Cross’ on the piano, playing it by ear in his usual ragtime/swing style. Wayne reaches up and tilts that crown jauntily to one side of his head and harmonizes with my Mom as they sing the words of the song, knowing the day has come and it is even more wonderful than they ever imagined.

Then He’ll call me someday to my home far away,
Where His glory forever I’ll share.

Originally posted January 20, 2015