1 As royal banners are unfurled,
the cross displays its mystery:
the Maker of our flesh, in flesh,
impaled and hanging helplessly.

2 Already deeply wounded: see
his side now riven by a spear,
and all our sins are swept away
by blood and water flowing here.

3 See everything the prophets wrote
fulfilled in its totality,
and tell the nations of the world
our God is reigning from the tree.

4 This tree, ablaze with royal light
and with the blood-red robe it wears,
is hallowed and embellished by
the weight of holiness it bears.

5 Stretched like a balance here, his arms
have gauged the price of wickedness;
but, hanging here, his love outweighs
hell's unforgiving bitterness.

6 The Saviour, victim, sacrifice
is, through his dying glorified;
his life is overcome by death
and leaps up, sweeping death aside.

7 We hail the cross, faith's one true hope:
God's passion set in time and space,
by which our guilt is blotted out,
engulfed in such stupendous grace. Amen.