He's Risen, He's Risen & Happy Easter

He's risen, He's risen, Our Lord Jesus Christ;
Let all here on earth praise how He has sufficed.
Break forth, hosts of heaven, in strong melody,
And leap, O you mountains; rejoice, O you sea.

Lord, have mercy.

The Devil first triumphed when at Calvary,
As Hell echoed back with its short victory,
The powers of darkness, of sin and of loss
Had watched as the Savior had suffered the cross. 

Lord, have mercy.

But in three short days He in vic'try arose!
As Lord of Salvation, He vanquished His foes.
The conquering Lord takes the field He has won
He sets free the captives as God's ris'n Son.

Lord have mercy.

Christ, Lion of the Tribe of Judah

O, where is your sting, Death* since that day you fell?
And where is your victory, O power of Hell?
What power, O Sin, do you claim to condemn?

And you, Law and Curses, fall aside with all them.

Lord, have mercy.

The Lord has arisen and empty the grave:
Proclaim to the world how our Lord came to save.
Let sinners redeemed sing their praise to the Son
With Father and Spirit, forevermore One.

Lord, have mercy.
----Rev. C.F.W. Walther, 1860
(adjusted closer to the original German from the 1939 translation by Anna M. Meyer)

*Hosea 13: 14 & I Corinthians 15: 55

     The writing of the hymn has an interesting story behind it.  The story is all the more interesting in light of how some Lutheran theologians insist that emotional matters are verboten (German for "forbidden") in framing religious ideas.  They base this on limited understandings of Luther's and Walther's view of feelings and faith.  

     This hymn was written on 08 April 1860, Easter Sunday that year. He was on a ship, out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, when he wrote the original 11 stanzas in German, as well as the melody.  Walther has never been very well-known, even by those who have heard of him, as a musician.  But he had musical training and ability and considered music as a career prior to the ministry.

     Walther was returning to Germany from Missouri for a sabbatical.  Years of various physical and emotional stressors were weighing on him.  Constitutionally, Walther was prone to bouts of depression.  The man who initially led the Missouri cohort of what became the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Martin Stephan, helped Walther in this regard.  Stephan, as a minister in Germany, taught the objectivity of God's grace and forgiveness, apart from how a person "feels" about it.  (Technically, this is also apart from what a person "thinks" about it.)

     Stephan had convinced a group of German Lutherans to go with him to the new world in 1838-1839.  They were seeking religious freedom.  The German Kaiser was forcing a union of various protestants in Germany, based on rationalism.  This rationalism destroyed the "mystery" necessary for framing Lutheran doctrines on baptism, the Lord's Supper and various matters surrounding salvation in the ways Lutherans do.

     Unfortunately, it turned out Stephan had some serious personal failings. As time went on, it surfaced that he had had multiple extra-marital affairs in both Germany and the US.  Although the modern notions of "counselor", "religious counselor" and "therapist" had not yet arisen, Stephan abused some close, personal trust, as he had functioned as a sort of "religious counselor" to many of these women he had affairs with.  (As noted above, he provided some counseling-like interventions for Walther, too.)  Stephan also appears to have been a financial scammer, having 'managed' his little group's collective ship fares to his own advantage.

     After Stephan was sent packing to Illinois, Walther assumed leadership of the fledging group as well as leadership of its new little pastoral training seminary.  His brother, also a pastor, died, and Walther became pastor of that church in 1841.  He remained pastor there until he died. 

     Already in university in Leipzig, Germany, Walther had survived a serious lung illness. During this time, he read Luther and responded to Stephan's spiritual care.  He became ordained as a Lutheran pastor and was very serious about Lutheran doctrine.

     In Missouri, he experienced other losses.  He lost a son at age four and another at 16 months. (Causes of death are unknown.) Additionally, he saw the loss of many parishioners during the St. Louis outbreak of cholera in 1849. 

     Walther's church graciously sent him on the 1860 sabbatical.  Though careworn, he awoke on Easter with gratitude for all that the resurrection brings.  This hymn was the result.

     [Information synthesized from various sources, to include Christianity.com and Concordia Historic Institute. ]

The original Anna M. Meyer 1939 translation of the hymn.  (c) 1941 The Lutheran Hymnal, held by Concordia Publishing House.

Select verses of Walther's Erstanden, Erstanden ist Jesus Christ