The Path of Life Daily Devotions

A squad of sixteen strong soldiers stood watch through the night, four at the time. It was going to be a long night.  Soldier jokes quickly wore thin and soon no attempts at humor could lighten the mood.  From the lone officer to the youngest recruit to the most ignorant and crass veteran,  the soldiers resented this duty.  Sleeping out under a full moon held no romance for them. Armor does not make the ground softer.  Night air does not ease the persistent cough or loosen the joints grown stiff in the humid dark.  More disgusting than the discomfort was the duty itself: guarding a dead man.  The soldiers had spoken to the execution squad and were sure their comrades had done a good job.  The corpse was not going anywhere.  It had taken all sixteen of them to roll the huge stone into place.  The lever and fulcrum they had used protruded from the bushes near the tomb but that was no risk for these weak-kneed Jews.   There was no danger in this garden, just as there was no comfort to be found either.  

With eight soldiers sleeping, or trying to, while three watched the approaches to the tomb and the other paced back and forth in front of the stone, a sudden shaking of the earth brought them all to an immediate full alert.  They could not know that this earthquake was highly localized and no one else would even report it.  It seemed the whole earth was shaking as dust flew up from the floor of the garden to cloud the air.  Their training took over and immediately they formed a cordon of defense, ready to repel an attack from any direction. 

Something like lightning, but much more startling, much brighter, and with a thunder that rattled the brains of each soldier, struck out in all directions from inside the tomb.  A brilliant beam of this magnified light circled the huge stone from inside the opening of the tomb sending out shards of light into the darkness.  The dust from the earthquake reflected the circling light giving weird and beautiful shapes to the shining beams.

Blinded by the light and bewildered by shaking of the earth the soldiers drew their swords and positioned their shields.  One of them found the lever since his short sword was temporarily mislaid.

Without the soldiers seeing where he came from, a tall warrior suddenly confronted them.  He carried no weapon and it looked like he would never need one.  With a single look, the angel silenced and shackled the soldiers of the Empire with a fear they had never known.  Instead of reaching for them, the angel went for the stone.

With unimaginable ease the angel rolled the stone from the door of the Tomb with a single hand and then sat on it.  The light and smoke from inside the tomb poured out into the garden like the bursting of a dam.  The soldiers, all sixteen of them, collapsed to the ground and fell into a trance as if they were dead.  They did not see what happened next.

Emerging from the blinding light, Jesus stepped out of the tomb.  The soldier angel stood in His presence.  This was the One he had worshiped and adored as long as he could remember and angels can remember the very beginning.  From every corner of the garden and from every corner, it seemed, of heaven itself, came the choirs of heaven singing a new verse to the song the shepherds had heard so many years before.  For centuries to come those of earth would gather on the first day of every week to sing the song. 

On this morning of the third day, in the isolation of this garden of death it was for heavenly creatures only to sing the song of victory.  The angels remember like it was yesterday the other Garden, the Garden of Life where the reign of death had its beginning.  Now the wrong was righted.  The joy restored in triumph.  Jesus, the Second Adam, was the Victor!  The sharp sting of death was blunted. The bondage of the grave was broken.  He had won for all of those who would believe in Him complete victory over sin, over sickness, over wrath, over judgment, and over even the loneliness of selfishness. 

We gather on the first day of the week because the ancient song must be sung at the beginning of everything new: “He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!”

Semper Reformanda!

Stephen Phifer, April 3, 2015

Matt 28:2-4; Mark 16:9-10; Luke 24:4-6

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!

1 Cor 15: 20-23;54-57

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”  “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”   The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rev 5:9-14

“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Tombs, when they are closed, hold their secrets.  Stories are finished whether they had a chance to end or not.  Voices are stilled, left only to the dubious recordings of memory and subject to alteration by pain and preference.  The eyes are closed.  The heart is still.  If there is a journey of the spirit that sets sail at the moment of death, there is no evidence of it inside the closed tomb.

At the tomb of Jesus, even the angels could not know what was happening after the stone was rolled into place by the soldiers.  The holy creatures had stood before the Son of God in heavenly majesty, their angel hearts bursting with worship.  He had sent them on countless angelic missions to aid the people of God.  They had also served by only standing and waiting.  Some of them sang to the shepherds.  An army of them stood at the ready during Jesus’ earthly ministry, ready to rescue Him were he to simply kick a rock as a signal for them to charge. 

As a child and young man, Jesus never called them so they had to watch as those around Him

• ignored Him,
• did carpenter business with Him,
• misunderstood Him, and
• gave up on Him like His brothers and sisters must have done.

For the last three years, they had traveled with Him throughout Galilee and down to Jerusalem.  They stood by as those He came to save

• underestimated Him,
• took freely of His miracles,
• suspected Him, unsure of His motives,
• watched with amusement as He grappled with the religious leaders, and
• went about their lives as if nothing important had happened.

Now angels wept, unable to see into the tomb, having confidence in God but sorrow for their Master.

In other quarters, human tears had long since dried up at the source.  Just when the women thought there could be no more tears, another torrent of grief would break.  They wanted Him back.  They wanted to finish the work of caring for Him, at least for His body, all they had left of Him.  But it was not really all they had.  In a place in their hearts deeper than the well of their tears, a tender of flame of hope flickered in slight but promising light.  Unlike the men, the women had really listened to Jesus.  They remembered those strange things He said about three days.  Their wounded hearts yearned for tomorrow, the third day.

Hiding for fear of their lives, the disciples did not dare to gather all in one place.  But they had broken down into their little clumps of friendships perhaps all in some proximity just in case.  Unlike the women who could allow their tears to flow unhindered, the men pushed their grief deeper into their hearts while their minds raced to process some sort of action plan.  But with Jesus dead, there was certainly nothing any of them could do.  Meanwhile, the tomb was closed, hiding its secrets.

For centuries, theologians have discussed what Jesus might have been doing on this Holy Saturday.  One ancient belief is based on an interpretation of a few verses.  It is romantic and appealing to the believer: “Jesus entered the regions of hell, confronted Satan, wresting from him the keys of death, hell, and the grave.  He then led the souls in the Bosom of Abraham, Paradise, out of their spiritual prison into the heavenly realms.  Some believe this ardently, others oppose it with equal ardor.”

What we all can do as we relive this Holy Saturday and the closed tomb is join our tears to those of the angels and the women and wonder with the men what we must do next.

Semper Reformanda!

Stephen Phifer April 3, 2015

Scriptures:

John 19:38-42

Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus…   Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Luke 16:22-26

“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.

Eph 4:7-8b

“When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.”  

Rev 1:18 KJV

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.