Day 46 – Release

The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment. (Luke 23: 55-56)

 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all… in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey. (1Peter 3: 18-20)

 What are we to do with this day? We do the same as the first disciples. We do nothing. That is the whole point. A body is lying dead in a tomb. It is the end. There is nothing we can do here. But this is Jesus in the tomb. God cannot die so whose body do you see there? Whose death is he dying?  To seek Jesus on this day, we must contemplate our own end – see our own body lying there beyond breath, lifeless. That is where we meet him. Medieval imagination loved to picture Jesus descending to the world of the dead. He arrives at the gates of the underworld. Satan, whose kingdom this is, comes out to receive what he assumes to be the routine delivery of another human body due to him, for the penalty for sin is death. But he finds, to his utter horror, that he has received the sinless Lord of Glory into his domain. At a stroke, his kingdom is laid waste, evil is vanquished and death itself is defeated.

 Prayer

Lord Jesus, take me by the hand. Take me with you. Release me and raise me up with you.