Lent Devotion - Jesus is Alive - Life Wins!

Jesus is Alive – Life Wins!
Written by Jim Hardenbrook

"For you, Lord, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living." Psalm 116:8-9

This week, the one we call Holy, is filled with death, tears, and stumbling. Just read any gospel account of Jesus’s last week on earth and you will see what I mean.

      Jesus becomes indignant about the misuse of the temple.

      He cries when considering the future of Jerusalem.

      He agonizes over his betrayal and crucifixion.

      He stumbles while carrying his cross to Golgotha.

      He dies.

But this is only part of the story. It is only the story until Sunday morning. Sunday morning is when Jesus walked again – in the land of the living! The land of the living isn’t necessarily a place of peace but it is a place where life wins over death.

As Eugene Peterson wrote:
​That’s where we Christians are stationed to affirm the primacy of life over death, to give a witness to the connectedness and preciousness of all life, to engage in the practice of resurrection.

We do this by gathering in congregations and regular worship before our life-giving God and our death-defeating Christ and our life-abounding Holy Spirit. We do it by reading, pondering, teaching, and preaching the Word of Life as it is revealed in our Scriptures. We do it by baptizing men, women, and children in the name of the Trinity, nurturing them into a resurrection life. We do it by eating the life of Jesus in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. We do it by visiting prisoners, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, healing the sick, working for justice, loving our enemies, raising our children, doing our everyday work to the glory of God.

This Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, will be such a time: a time to challenge the forces of death and destruction with the incredibly powerful news that Jesus is alive. Life wins!

You, Lord Jesus, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling. May I may walk before you in the land of the living to your eternal praise and glory. Amen.