Devotions for the Week of Easter

Easter Monday – Prayer of the Week

Almighty God and Father, through Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, You have

overcome death and opened the gate of everlasting life to us. Grant that we, who

celebrate with joy the day of our Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin

by Your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You

and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

We were all rather glum. The doctor had told us the bad news. Our friend’s condition was

inoperable. The cancer had spread too far. There was really very little that could be done. She

was dying. Her skin already had that strange pallor that dying people get sometimes.

But my friend was not sad, she was the only one in the room who smiled. She was prepared to

walk through that gate of everlasting life. Her difficult life was drawing to a close. Her eternal

bliss and cancer-free life was laid out before her. She was happy.

At the root of that happiness was trust. Jesus had made a promise to her in Baptismal water, a

promise renewed at every sacramental meal, in countless sermons, absolutions, and other

encounters with God’s Word. The Jesus who lived and died and rose so long ago, had lived and

died and risen for her. His death and resurrection included her. She trusted that, and she was

glad. We celebrate with joy the day of our Lord’s resurrection and the promise of our own

resurrection.

Easter Tuesday – Isaiah 65:17-25

17  “For behold, I create new heavens

    and a new earth,

and the former things shall not be remembered

    or come into mind.

18  But be glad and rejoice forever

    in that which I create;

for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,

    and her people to be a gladness.

19  I will rejoice in Jerusalem

    and be glad in my people;

no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping

    and the cry of distress.

20  No more shall there be in it

    an infant who lives but a few days,

    or an old man who does not fill out his days,

for the young man shall die a hundred years old,

    and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

21  They shall build houses and inhabit them;

    they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

22  They shall not build and another inhabit;

    they shall not plant and another eat;

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

    and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

23  They shall not labor in vain

    or bear children for calamity,

for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD,

    and their descendants with them.

24  Before they call I will answer;

    while they are yet speaking I will hear.

25  The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;

    the lion shall eat straw like the ox,

    and dust shall be the serpent's food.

As I read this passage I cannot but think about the images which I have seen streaming out of

Ukraine, Syria, the Sudan, and elsewhere. We have seen the devastated cities and villages after a

war has taken place. We have seen hollow eyes and grieving mothers.

Isaiah’s audience had seen this sort of thing too. First the Assyrians and then the Babylonians

had ravaged the land of Israel. They knew the anguish of lives cut short, of houses built only to

be destroyed by an enemy or given to someone else, vineyards burned or seized and the fruit

enjoyed by another. Jerusalem had been filled with the cries of distress when the exile came.

Isaiah sees another day, a resurrection day in which no one labors in vain or bears children for

calamity. God will be right there, answering the prayer before you utter it. Even nature itself will

be changed. The predator and the prey will lie down and rest beside one another.

Jesus’ resurrection proclaims this same vision of Isaiah. He is raised from the dead and this

changes everything, including the very fabric of nature and the character of our lives. It is true,

we continue to live in the now and not-yet, the life of faith which trusts and does not always see

what we believe. But Jesus has risen from the dead. Its brutal grip on us has been broken. The

day comes when its iron power will collapse into rust and decay, and all will be liberated.

Centuries before Jesus, Isaiah saw it and through his eyes we get to see a bit of it today. Alleluia!

Easter Wednesday – Psalm 16

1  Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

2  I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;

    I have no good apart from you.”

3  As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,

    in whom is all my delight.

4  The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;

    their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out

    or take their names on my lips.

5  The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;

    you hold my lot.

6  The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

7  I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;

    in the night also my heart instructs me.

8  I have set the LORD always before me;

    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

9  Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;

    my flesh also dwells secure.

10  For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

    or let your holy one see corruption.

11  You make known to me the path of life;

    in your presence there is fullness of joy;

    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

I am a student of medieval and reformation Europe. Throughout this period there is a recurrent

theme that happens within the stories which surround many saints. When they die it smells good,

often either like baked bread or flowers. It was said that when Theresa of Avila died the whole

nunnery smelled like flowers. Verse three tells us that the saints in the land are the excellent ones

in whom the psalmist delights. Later in the psalm, in verse 10, it says that the Lord will not let

his holy one (saint) see corruption.

We often take that to mean that Jesus rose before his body was ruined by decay. This is true. But

the medieval Christians held that this verse also spoke of us, or at least some of us. The saints

were a special manifestation of God’s grace in this life. The medieval people knew well what the

stench of death smelled like. There was no funeral home industry; death was an ever-present

reality for them. They marveled when the stench was replaced by something pleasant.

Ever since Descartes, the French philosopher who said, “I think, therefore I am,” we have

downplayed the value and role of our bodies. For many the body is simply a biological machine

in which our minds are temporarily housed. Some even imagine that they could “download” or

“upload” themselves into a computer and live forever that way, free of an aging and dying body.

But Jesus rose in the body, a body whom Mary Magdalene could hang onto that first Easter day,

a body whose wounds Thomas could touch, a man who ate and drank with His disciples after the

resurrection. His body rose from the grave, not just some spirit or incorporeal self. He was fully

human and being human includes a body.

Your body, for all its failings and weaknesses, and eventually despite its death, is precious to

God. In His presence there is fullness of joy. At His right hand there are pleasures forevermore,

pleasures which we will enjoy with bodies restored by Christ’s resurrection.

Easter Thursday – I Corinthians 15:19-26

19  If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

20  But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen

asleep. 21  For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the

dead. 22  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23  But each in his

own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24  Then

comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every

rule and every authority and power. 25  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies

under his feet. 26  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

I knew a fellow who approached the middle of his sixth decade of life with a great deal of

trepidation. Almost all the men in his family had died early deaths in that decade of life. They

developed cancers and heart disease; some were in accidents; it seemed like the years 50-59 were

just an obstacle too high for the men in his family.

The last decades have seen an explosion of medical and pharmaceutical advancements which are

directly attributable to our knowledge of genetics, the inherited blueprint which is written into

every cell in our bodies. Even the recent COVID vaccines were developed with that knowledge.

But this study of genetics has also given some to conclude that we are prisoners of our

inheritance. What if I or you have a genetic marker for some cancer or other malady? Are we

doomed to suffer from this? I have known some, in whose family breast cancer is a frequent

scourge, to have undergone pre-emptive surgeries lest they suffer the fate of their mothers, aunts,

or sisters.

Paul notes that we inherit all this death and suffering from our first ancestor, Adam, who led the

whole human race into its rebellion and sin. Born a son of Adam, I have his genes. There is

nothing I can do about it. But Jesus comes with good news. Having taken human nature to

Himself, He has transformed that nature, rewritten the code which condemns us. He is the true

gene therapy. My old nature, inherited from Adam, will need to be purged and that will happen

in my death and resurrection or by God Himself on that last day. In any event, Jesus has given

me a new inheritance, he is the New Adam. I have a bright future.

Easter Friday – Luke 24:1-12

1 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.

What were those women doing there at that hour? My brother insists they are there because

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had collected and prepared Jesus’ body for burial. He

thinks the women come to the tomb to do it right. He likens it to how his wife reloads the

dishwasher after he puts the dishes in there. Those men probably did not do it right. Usually, it

was the women of a family who prepared a body for burial.

I am not sure, but I can imagine it being just that way. Perhaps they knew Jesus’ burial had been

done in haste. We know Jesus was buried quickly because the Sabbath begins at sundown on

Friday. In any event, these women also wanted to give him honor in his death and burial. He was

their beloved teacher. The angelic beings who greet them ask the same question: “What are you

here?” But the motive for their question is different. They think it is just silly that they expect to

find a body there at all. Jesus told them He would rise from death. Don’t look for Him in a

cemetery. Look among the living.

Often our eyes and ears are filled with the sights and sounds of this world’s suffering and death.

We take it for normal. I got a prayer request the other day for another friend who is recovering

from surgery and in pain. Am I more troubled by his pain or by the fact that his request added his

name to a long list of folks who are suffering? I don’t know. The angels in this text want us to

see a new normal, a new “regular way” of seeing the world. Jesus said he would rise, expect that!

Jesus made many promises to us. Expect them all. He promised to be with you until the end of

the age. He promised to raise you from death to eternal and blessed life. How does believing that

promise govern the way we live and die? What if we expect something very different from what

the world leads us to expect? What if we live and die trusting Him to keep His promise?