Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “His cross stands empty in a world grown silent” by the sisters of Stanbrook Abbey (one of several of their hymn in this book). As John commented in his video, Easter Eve forces us to think about what happens to our own bodies after death, and what (if anything) we can say Christ was doing between his death and resurrection. This hymn takes the traditional view that his spirit ‘descended to the dead’ to bring them the good news of salvation and release them from death (using the ancient image of the souls of the dead lying captive beneath the earth while heaven is above it).
All such ideas are of course pictorial images of matters beyond the realm of science and everyday experience. The belief that the souls of the dead live on beyond the decay of their bodies is widespread across many religions and cultures, evidenced (if you wish) by the many people who have seen ghosts or hear the voices of their deceased at a séance, although Christianity has always been wary of such ‘contacts’ (often attributing such manifestations to the deceptions of evil spirits). The Christian view is that we should just have faith that God will one day resurrect with new bodies all who have trusted in him, the resurrection of Christ being sufficient proof for us to hold that belief with confidence.
The empty cross is a symbol of that faith. Although some Christians wear the crucifix or display it on walls, altars or elsewhere, the cross itself without the corpus (body of Christ) is an equally common symbol (probably more common in Protestant churches) and represents the enduring promise that even after the crucifixion has happened, God always has the power to bring its benefits to humankind.