Daily Devotion

Why do you seek the living among the dead?

Audio

Today is Tuesday of Easter Week, 22nd of April. Let us be still before His presence.

We say the words of Psalm 147:

147 Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
    for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
² The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
    he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
³ He heals the brokenhearted
    and binds up their wounds.
⁴ He determines the number of the stars;
    he gives to all of them their names.
⁵ Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
    his understanding is beyond measure.
⁶ The Lord lifts up the humble;
    he casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷ Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
    make melody to our God on the lyre!
⁸ He covers the heavens with clouds;
    he prepares rain for the earth;
    he makes grass grow on the hills.
⁹ He gives to the beasts their food,
    and to the young ravens that cry.
¹⁰ His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
¹¹ but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
    in those who hope in his steadfast love.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as It was in the beginning, is
now, and shall be forever. Amen.

The Scripture Reading is Luke 24:1-12

24 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. ² And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.⁴ While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. ⁵ And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?⁶ He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷ that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” ⁸ And they remembered his words, ⁹ and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.¹⁰ Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, ¹¹ but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹² But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Reflection

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

This is a strange question. Why not? The disciples were merely doing what bereaved people do: grieving at the grave.

For Good Friday was anything but good. Their Master was murdered. 

In many ways, the death of Christ, if it stops short of Easter, mirrors life. The innocent suffers. Often the criminals get away with it. We read it in the papers everyday.

There is a famous painting of the German artist, Holbein, entitled The Body of the dead Christ in the tomb.

It plainly depicts a dead body, where rigor mortis has set in. In her diaries, Anna Dostoyevsky recalls her husband standing before Holbein’s Dead Christ as if stunned. He was, she recounts, both transfixed and agitated by it. “A painting like that,“ he said to her, “can make you lose your faith”. This painting inspired him to write the tragic novel, The Idiot.

If the life of Jesus ends with death, like that of any other human being, then good cannot triumph over evil. We cannot say that ultimately, there will be justice. Or that there is a moral order to this universe. Christianity will not be anything other than a cemetery of ideals.

For why should anyone believe in a dead Messiah?

But the angel moved on to say: He is not here, but has risen.

Herein lies the unique message, he is not in the tomb for He has risen. Good Friday is “good” because of Easter. Easter makes all the difference because the message is: Ultimately, good will triumph over evil. And death will not have a final word. 

Indeed, we do not seek the living among the dead. For those of us who believe, life do not end in the grave.

Reflect for a moment on the implications of Jesus’ resurrection for your life. How will it influence the way you live today?

We end with the Collect:

God of Life,
who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son
to the death of the cross,
and by his glorious resurrection have delivered us
from the power of our enemy:
grant us so to die daily to sin,
that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his risen life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem – sung by Anglican Chamber Ensemble.

1 Ye choirs of new Jerusalem,
your sweetest notes employ,
the Paschal victory to hymn
in strains of holy joy.

2 How Judah’s Lion burst his chains,
and crushed the serpent’s head;
and brought with him, from death’s domains,
the long-imprisoned dead.

3 From hell’s devouring jaws the prey
alone our Leader bore;
his ransomed hosts pursue their way
where he hath gone before.

4 Triumphant in his glory now
his sceptre ruleth all,
earth, heaven, and hell before him bow,
and at his footstool fall.

5 While joyful thus his praise we sing,
his mercy we implore,
into his palace bright to bring
and keep us evermore.

6 All glory to the Father be,
all glory to the Son,
all glory, Holy Ghost, to thee,
while endless ages run.

Alleluia! Amen.

Link to today’s Morning Office