The Passover is a covenant feast. Only those who are circumcised as a sign of
obedience to the covenant are allowed to participate. This meal is special, it cannot be shared
with those not in the covenant with the Lord.
It is a night of waiting and watching.
Originally Moses says it was a night of watching by the Lord and now it is to be a night of watching kept to the Lord, or waiting for the
Lord. Only those who celebrate the
Exodus, the deliverance of the Lord, can keep the feast. The same is true of communion in our
tradition, only those who have accepted the covenant for themselves, who
confess the faith and who confess their sins, their failure to keep the
covenant, and who put their faith in Jesus’ sacrifice, God’s mercy, can keep
the feast of communion.
Matthew tells us that the young man sitting in the tomb was
an angel, a detail Mark doesn’t provide but certainly that is the only possible
conclusion for the identity of the “young man.”
Matthew, however, says that the women met Jesus on the way and His
greeting was enough for them to know who He was and their response to Him was
to fall at His feet and worship Him.
Matthew also tells us that they gave the word of the resurrection to the
disciples and they obeyed and went to Galilee.
The soldiers are paid off to lie about what happened. Why would the disciples steal the body? What would they have done with it? Were they implying that eating Jesus’ flesh
and drinking His blood were the motives?
What we believe about the resurrection matters. Was Jesus’ resurrection spiritual or ghostly
or was the body resurrected? There is no
dualism in Christianity, we were created as corporeal beings and the
resurrection of the body tells me that what I do with the body matters. The body of Jesus was marred only by the sins
of others, mine is corrupted by my own sin.
That first verse certainly gets your attention. Paul isn’t commending the practice of being
baptized for the dead, simply noting that it happens. Nowhere else do we see this practice spoken
of in scripture or any early church documents.
Paul is using the practice as an argument for the resurrection. If we are not raised there would be no
thought of baptism on behalf of the dead.
Paul speaks to the matter of the import of the body, that we can’t
simply say, “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!” That philosophy says that the body doesn’t
matter anyway so enjoy it while you can.
Paul says that the body does matter even if it isn’t eternal, it is the
seed from which the eternal is derived.
Faith and belief and the understanding of our created-ness in God’s
image tell us that life is a sacrament and we live in this body by faith each
day, offering it to the Lord for His use and His glory.
For the Apostles’
glorious company,
Who bearing forth the
Cross o’er land and sea,
Shook all the mighty
world, we sing to Thee:
Alleluia, Alleluia!
For the Evangelists,
by whose blest word,
Like fourfold streams,
the garden of the Lord,
Is fair and fruitful,
be Thy Name adored.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
For Martyrs, who with
rapture kindled eye,
Saw the bright crown
descending from the sky,
And seeing, grasped
it, Thee we glorify.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
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