Holy Week Playlist: Songs to Survey the Wondrous Cross

Christian leaders and musicians share their favorite Easter music.

As we draw near to Holy Week, Christians around the world often turn to music to express their worship of Christ for his death on the cross and the triumph of his resurrection. Our special issue The Wondrous Cross reflects on eight pieces of music that help us enter into the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice. In addition to those songs, we’ve asked several Christian leaders—as well as some members of CT’s staff—to share their favorite pieces of music for contemplating the Cross and celebrating the Resurrection. You can listen to all of these songs on our Spotify playlist. 

 

“King of Glory, King of Peace” by George Herbert
There are two parts of this song that get me every time. The first is “Thou didst note my working breast, Thou hast spared me.” The physicality of this image—“the working breast” distressed by our own failures—speaks to my experience. God in his mercy spared me. The second is this: “Though my sins against me cried, Thou didst clear me; and alone, when they replied, Thou didst hear me.” God did not hear the testimony of my sins; instead he heard me. These are great comforts during the season.
—Esau McCaulley is an associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and the author of Reading While Black and Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit.

 

“Is He Worthy?” by Andrew Peterson  I have known and loved Andrew Peterson’s song “Is He Worthy?” up-close in our Nashville community, and it keeps on reminding me to believe the story of Easter again and again. The simple, call-and-response style of the chorus is a way of saying the truth, asking the question, saying the truth. As many ...

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