Resurrection Power
The Bed
Today’s household object is the bed and our Bible passage is Matthew 27:62-66.
Most of us nowadays have a bed on which we can sleep. This has not historically always been the case, and even now, on camping holidays, we do not have a comfortable bed but a mat and sleeping bag on which to sleep. Sleep is utterly necessary to us however, wherever we sleep. If we are deprived of sleep, we become confused, grumpy, forgetful and even can hallucinate; sleep deprivation is a form of torture.
Sleep, in the Bible, is often likened to death. At night when we sleep, we lay down our consciousness and activity and rest, to rise again in the morning, refreshed and revitalised. In the same way, the death of Jesus gave way to resurrection, and our physical death is seen as sleep which will be ended when we are raised to life again as Jesus was. Holy Saturday seems a day of inactivity and death, but the truth is that Jesus has now emptied the bed of death and walked free in the light of redemption, freedom and hope. ‘As we lie down to sleep tonight, may we wake to the renewing light of the Easter dawn.’ (‘At Home In Lent’, P 183)
The Way Of The Cross
Servanthood, suffering, sacrifice – these are the things we see magnified in this last week of Jesus’s life. They were things prophesied by Isaiah many years beforehand: Isaiah said of the Suffering Servant, ‘He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.’ (Is 53:3) In that very famous prophecy, we read,
‘Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.’ (Isaiah 53:4-6)
Jesus experienced suffering and became that perfect sacrifice precisely because of our sin. It was our pain He took upon Himself; He bore our suffering. Because of His suffering and sacrifice, we can know peace; we can be healed. Because Jesus chose the way of servanthood, we can be set free; we can be saved. There’s nothing more we can do but believe and rely on the cross: as Paul said, ‘may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Gal 6:14)
And yet, Good Friday is not the end of the story. There is resurrection ahead. Friday’s here, but Sunday’s coming. Blessing and reward lie ahead; the way of the cross is not our final destination. Make no mistake, though: blessing and reward can only be reached as we choose the Jesus way of servanthood, suffering and sacrifice. Paul wanted to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, but that is only available through ‘participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.’ (Phil 3:10-11) Jesus our Saviour has blazed the way, but He did this by hanging on a cross. ‘For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.’ (1 Pet 3:18) May we embrace the way of the cross and be made alive in the Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Servanthood, Suffering and Sacrifice
Good Friday
Mad March
March has been a bit mad this year, largely due to the early date of Easter. This month, I’ve had two family birthdays to celebrate (including my own) and have also been involved in four community events, led four additional Lent Bible studies and lunches and baked for my husband’s retirement celebration and Good Friday church meal on top of all the usual things that make up my week! At times it’s been frantic, and I’ve definitely identified more with Martha than Mary as I have cooked chilli con carne for forty people while ferrying grandchildren to choir concerts (to be fair, my husband did the ferrying, but I provided a picnic lunch whilst everything else was going on!) A two-day break in the Lake District for my birthday was an oasis of calm in the flurry of activity that has made up March 2024. As I write, I still have to cook and prepare for a week’s break to celebrate my middle granddaughter’s birthday, but hopefully April will be more ‘normal.’
A blog I read regularly by the Church of England minister Jamie Franklin quotes Marcus Aurelius as saying.
‘When the force of circumstances causes you, in some sense, to lose your equilibrium, return to yourself with all speed, and never lose the rhythm for longer than you must; for you will be more in control of the measure if you return to it again and again.’
Meditations, Book VI.11
This is good advice. Some days and weeks are, indeed, busier than others, but there has to be an equilibrium in our lives, a rhythm that includes rest and prayer on a regular basis. Jamie goes on to comment, ‘I must find my rest, my refreshment, my peace, my restoration in God. If I don’t do this, I can make myself very busy trying to get stuff done, but my heart is frozen and my mind is tense.’ Busyness is not, of itself, proof of much except busyness. It’s certainly no indication of success or achievement that lasts. The churches in Thyatira and Ephesus were hard-working and busy, but Jesus found plenty that was amiss with their hearts (see Revelation 2). We need to get our priorities right and live by God’s principles (which includes Sabbath rest for restoration and worship). Only then can we hold on to the ‘one thing’ which Mary found and which Jesus commended to Martha. (Luke 10:38-42)