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The New Road

[John Beavis]

Danny Spooner sang John Beavis’ song The New Road on his 2007 CD of fairly contemporary Australian songs, Emerging Tradition. He noted:

This is the work of Victorian singer and songwriter John Beavis. His wonderfully crafted and succinct retelling of the life of Christ is carried on a melody very reminiscent of J.S. Bach, and I reckon that the old “kapellmeister” would approve.

Lyrics

Danny Spooner sings The New Road

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 sinking over Galilee
Saw the stranger walking by an inland sea;
Four young fishermen around entwine,
For the New Road heading to a Canaan wedding
Where He turned the water into wine.

Thousands listened on the mountain slope,
As they dined on miracles and leaved in Hope;
Blind men followed with the light restored,
For the sightless Pharisees condemned as heresies
The wide-eyed workings of the Lord.

Alleluja, how the people cheer,
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 at 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 was lain,
Bid her quit 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.