THE NEW ROAD written by JON BEAVIS.
You who puzzle on the Saviour’s deeds,
Will you stop and listen where the New Road leads;
First born child of the refugees,
He was raised in Nazareth, schooled in charity,
And found salvation on His knees.
Manhood brought Him to the Jordan shore,
Where the Baptist shivered in the rags he wore;
Plunged his cousin in the pilgrim stream,
And the Dove descended and the Old Road ended
And the New Road wakened from a dream.
Red sun setting over Galilee
Saw the stranger walking by the inland sea;
Four young fishermen around him twined,
And the New Road headed to a Canaan wedding
Where He turned the water into wine.
Thousands gathered on the mountain slope,
Where they dined on miracles and breathed in Hope;
Blind men followed with the light restored,
And the sightless Pharisees condemned as heresies
The wide-eyed workings of the Lord.
Alleluja, the people cheer,
And the palm leaves rustle as the King draws near;
Woe, Jerusalem, the truth you shun,
And your sins ensuing are your own undoing
Till your stones lie broken in the sun.
Thirteen gathered in an upstairs room,
As the high priest plotted on the Saviour’s doom;
Blood and body in the wine and bread,
Then He kissed His enemy in sweet Gethsemane;
Twelve hours later He was dead.
Mary wondered at the stone flung wide,
And the tomb rang hollow as she stepped inside;
Angels seated where the Christ had lain,
Bid her leave the prison for the Son had risen
And would speak in Galilee again.
Show by living what the Lord had done,
In the selfless giving of his only son;
Chart this passage to the last Amen.
For the climb is steady if the pilgrim’s ready,
The New Road reaches out again.
The New Road is a terrific song written by Jon Beavis, who now lives with his wife Sally in sunny Melbourne. I first heard Jon sing this at a concert we did, with Danny Spooner, in Castlemaine I think back in the late 1980’s. I was hooked by the narrative and his wonderful use of words. As you will notice I do not sing the last verse.
Jon and I in Australia