Tuesday in Holy Week
O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
"As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No," Paul writes to the Corinthians. "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him."
In the Old Testament, there are many questions. Psalm 88.10-12 asks:
Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you?
Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
In the New Testament, there is one answer:
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1.4-5)
[Jesus said,] "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." (John 5.25)
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." (John 11.25a)
In saying, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above the heavens, that he might fill all things. (Ephesians 4.9-10)
And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!" (Revelation 14.13).
The Psalmist asks, "Do you work wonders for the dead?" Jesus Christ, in dying and rising again, answers with a resounding, "YES!"
Ask Ye What Great Thing I Know
Ask ye what great thing I know,
That delights and stirs me so?
What the high reward I win?
Whose the Name I glory in?
Jesus Christ, the Crucified.
What is faith’s foundation strong?
What awakes my heart to song?
He who bore my sinful load,
Purchased for me peace with God,
Jesus Christ, the Crucified.
Who is He that makes me wise
To discern where duty lies?
Who is He that makes me true
Duty, when discerned to do,
Jesus Christ, the Crucified.
Who defeats my fiercest foes?
Who consoles my saddest woes?
Who revives my fainting heart,
Healing all its hidden smart?
Jesus Christ, the Crucified.
Who is life in life to me?
Who the death of death will be?
Who will place me on His right,
With the countless hosts of light?
Jesus Christ, the Crucified.
This is that great thing I know;
This delights and stirs me so;
Faith in Him who died to save,
Him who triumphed over the grave:
Jesus Christ, the Crucified.
- Johann C. Schwedler
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