Image by Kevin Delvecchio from Unsplash

“Homecoming” is the title track from Bethel’s 2021 worship release. I’ve already reviewed “Send Me” from the same album, and you can find that review here. “Homecoming” is the work of Cory Asbury, Brian Johnson, Gable Price, and Christian Ostrom, and covers a broad arc of the Gospel and its implications for our lives, past, present, and future. Where this song really stands out is the bridge, where it paints a beautiful picture of our arrival and celebration in heaven. Is this picture of heaven biblical, and will this song serve your congregation well in worship? Let’s check it out!

Focus

The verses and chorus of “Homecoming” focus on our responsibility for our sin and the great work of Jesus that exchanged our death for life through his crucifixion and resurrection. The bridge dwells on joy-filled imagery of the our future reunion with God, our families, and the global Church. There’s a lot of “I” language, but it’s mostly related to the admission of guilt. It’s clear that the glory in this song belongs only to God, as he’s the one doing away with sin and welcoming us into our homecoming.

Lyric Analysis

VERSE 1
“Homecoming” comes right out of the gate with a confession of sin. In fact, both verses start with the line, “Lord, I confess.”

Here at the beginning, we confess being criminals, particularly in stealing breath from God and singing our own songs. What in the world does that mean? I think we’re referring here to the breath of life that God gave Adam at creation, and which God provides to all living people as a continual gift (Gen. 2:7, Isa. 42:5). In this verse, singing my own song is a metaphor for using the breath and life God has given me for my own purposes and glory instead of his.

Next, we confess our lack of innocence, which is appropriate since all of us have sinned (Rom. 3:23). Further, we admit that our shackles are something we purchased ourselves. Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death, so being shackled to the dead weight of our sin is indeed the reality that we buy when we choose to use the gift of life to sin rather than to sing God’s glory.

VERSE 2

In this verse, we identify with the Prodigal Son from Jesus’ parable in Luke 15:11-32. Though he was born into a family with a loving father and an inheritance, he spurned his family and squandered his inheritance. This is what we do when we choose to wander from God rather than dwell with him in his house and under his provision and protection as in Psalm 23.

But then Jesus came! In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul is addressing Gentile believers and how before Jesus, they were separated, walled off, from God and his family Israel. So the walls that imprison us are really the walls that separate us from God and his family. Verse 14 says, “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” This is how we pass from death to life and into intimate familial fellowship with Jesus and the Father (John 5:24, Eph 2:18-19).

CHORUS
Our sins are described as scarlet, red, and crimson in Isaiah 1:18, where God also promises to wash them white like snow or wool. These blood colors represent sin because when we turn from God, we have guilt on our hands like the blood of a murder victim, or perhaps a wasted animal sacrifice that only serves to keep up our outward image of religiosity (Isa. 1:15). The crimson cost of our sin, then, is the one sacrifice that can permanently remove it: the blood of Jesus (Heb. 9:12). For more on this, see my review of “Thank You Jesus for the Blood.” The next line makes this explicit, saying he nailed our debts to that “old rugged cross.” This is a reference both to the classic hymn by George Bennard, and the words of Peter in 1 Peter 2:24.

An empty slate is a fresh start. The original idiom comes from a slate tracking a ship’s navigation being wiped clean to start a new voyage. This is a refreshing and appropriate image for becoming a new creation, being born again in Jesus (John 3:3, 2 Cor. 5:17). And that empty slate is only made possible because of the empty grave, i.e., Jesus’ resurrection (Rom. 6:3-4).

So, of course, we express thanks to God for rolling away the stone that sealed Jesus in the tomb, and by extension, the stones that seal us in our own tombs of sin, and by further extension, the stones that will seal us in our tombs of literal death, as the bridge of this song will celebrate by exploring imagery of our future resurrection.

SPONTANEOUS

He’s singing to Jesus, I think. Either way, I imagine anyone in heaven is going to be smiling a lot, so I have no problem with this ad lib.

BRIDGE

So we started with confessing responsibility for our sin, then moved into the glory of Jesus paying the price for that sin and giving us new life through his resurrection. Now, we look at the future consequence of that salvation: our eternity reunited with God and his family, the Church. Like much of the Bible’s imagery describing our future resurrection, we have a mixture of concrete and abstract, metaphorical and literal. All of these, as N. T. Wright likes to say, are “signposts pointing into a fog,” images that suggest the glory and joy of our eternal state united with Jesus and one another without ever giving us a precise picture of what exactly it will be like.

I have to admit, I don’t fully understand the first line of the bridge. I think the crimson robes in question must be Jesus’ robes stained with his blood, and the ashes they are covering represent death and all the old things of earth that have passed away. Roses pushing up from embers is a connected line in the next stanza, representing something beautiful and alive being reborn from death, destruction, and pain.

The empty tomb in place of a casket represents both Jesus’ resurrection, and ours. I like how the image of the casket is used here to ground the truth of our future resurrection in our contemporary experience to make it feel more real and immediate. Not many of us have been to an ancient Jewish tomb, and it’s easy to feel a disconnect. But most of us have been to a funeral and seen a loved one lying in a casket. It is this stark, cold reality that will be undone forever at the final resurrection, and we will see our loved ones again, and be resurrected ourselves.

I’m not aware of any specific passages about children or families singing, dancing, or laughing in heaven, but these are all classic Old Testament expressions of joy or worship (Ps. 150:4, 126:2, 96:1). The Lord himself sings over us joyfully in Zephaniah 3:17. So these are all appropriate activities that I would expect all heaven’s residents to enjoy. “Rivers of tears” coming from happy memories of life is a little tougher to justify. Revelation 21:4 says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” I think the kind of tears referred to in this verse are clearly sad tears, not happy tears, so we don’t need to take it as a blanket prohibition on crying in heaven, merely a signpost that all reasons for mourning and sadness will be gone.

As mentioned above, it is not surprising that all heaven should sing together both in worship to God, and in celebration at the homecoming of lost sheep (Luke 15:7). The “great cloud of witnesses” comes from Hebrews 12:1, where it refers to the people of faith listed throughout Hebrews 11. The idea in this passage is that all the heroes of the Old Testament who lived and died in faith, trusting in God’s promise of the future Messiah, are gathered around as we continue the race they began, this time with Christ in full view. I think it makes sense to carry this picture forward to the finish line of the final resurrection, when our race will finally be won.

Regarding the word “homecoming,” I think this is a perfectly apt description of our future resurrection when we will be perfectly united with God and his family forever. God’s presence is our true home, regardless of other circumstances (2 Cor. 5:8), and our citizenship is in heaven, where we will receive glorious, resurrected bodies (Phil. 3:20-21). When I hear “the Father is welcoming,” I picture the father of the Prodigal Son again. In Luke 15:20, the prodigal is returning home, expecting to become a mere servant in his father’s house, but instead, “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” This is the kind of love with which we can expect to be welcomed home by our Father.

SPONTANEOUS

No major issues here. We will be with our families, or at least those of them who are believers. Wizard of Oz reference. Yes, Jesus is beautiful and we will see him face to face.

Accessibility

I am a little concerned about the accessibility of this worship song. It is jam-packed with Bible references and symbols that I expect to go over many people’s heads, and they come so fast that nobody’s going to catch all of them on a first hearing. This is both a strength and a weakness; a song that is hard to understand at first is often more meaningful once you mull it over and figure it out. Additionally, while individual lines are often tricky, the main emotional thrust of each part of the song is clear. The verses are sorrow over our sin, the chorus is gratitude for forgiveness, and the bridge is the joy and longing for our heavenly homecoming.

I don’t find much danger of misinterpretation in this song.

Music

“Homecoming” follows a pretty standard worship song format. We have a quiet first verse and chorus, then a dynamic leap in verse 2 and a pair of louder choruses followed by a bridge that builds to a crescendo, a climactic final chorus, and an “oh-oh” tag for an outro. In church, I would probably end the song here, though the recording goes through a spontaneous portion followed by another repetition of the bridge and chorus. The form of the song is effective at providing a vehicle for the message, and for communicating the emotional arc of sorrow-gratitude-joyful longing.

I think the most challenging musical aspect of this song will be nailing the drum groove. The drums on the verses are syncopated and clicky, and then the bridge is one long drum roll. Vocally, the melodies of the verses and chorus are easy but not boring, and the bridge is repetitive as one would expect. The challenging part here will be the “oh-oh-oh-OH” on the outro. I’ll probably transpose it down to fit my range better, but I do that with most songs.

Conclusions

“Homecoming” is a wonderful song that has been meaningful for me in my personal worship times over the past couple months. That time for me has included the loss of a grandparent and a strained relationship with another close family member, so the hopeful tone of the bridge regarding families being brought back together at the resurrection has been comforting for me. Upon first hearing the song, that emphasis on family gave me pause, and I wondered if it might be a reason not to use it for church. Any time we sing or talk about heaven, I am always wary of losing focus on its most important feature: Jesus. The point of heaven is that we are with the Lord, and he is with his people, his Church, his family. The presence of our own family members and friends who are in Christ is an ancillary benefit, not the main point. But it is a benefit. Part of being in Christ is being a part of his family, so it is right and good to celebrate the reunion of that global family for eternity with him. Part of that global family, and the best picture we have of that joy in this life, is our relationships with our own loved ones. So I think this feature of the song is effective and faithful to Scripture, as long as we do not let it overshadow the more essential point of being at home with the Lord.

Will it worship? Yes! I anticipate introducing this song and its glorious celebration of the Gospel to my church in January. I hope it blesses them like it has blessed me.

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