Tuesday • 4/18/2023 •
Week of 2 Easter

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 5; Psalm 6; Daniel 2:1–16; 1 John 2:1–11; John 17:12–19

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 13 (“A Song of Praise,” BCP, p. 90);following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9–10, 13, BCP, p. 93)

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we draw insights from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you. This is Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!”

1 John. First, John writes that those who say they have no sin and therefore do not need to confess their sin delude themselves about themselves. And they show themselves to be oblivious to an essential element of the Bible’s story line. The world has a desperate need for an “atoning sacrifice” (NRSV) or “propitiation” (KJV, ASV, NASB, ESV). “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1b–2). 

The Greek term that John uses here for Christ’s sacrifice is hilasmos. Its root hilaros means “cheerful, merry, joyful.” John means that by his sacrifice on the cross, Christ the God-Man has turned away God’s wrath by satisfying the hard demands of justice. Yes, the demands of the very God whose love sent Jesus in the first place! Indeed, as Cranmer’s prayer puts it, our Heavenly Father’s “property is always to have mercy.” The death of the Incarnate One on the cross is the means by which the God of mercy brings his mercy to bear on our lives. Hilasmos carries the sense of turning the Divine Judge’s righteous frown into a smile of welcome. 

Think of it this way: because Christ offers himself as hilasmos, God the Righteous Judge comes from behind the bench, takes off his robes, and, as Heavenly Father, embraces those sanctified and cleansed from unrighteousness, shame, and guilt. He invites them home, seats them at his Table, adopts them, not just as sons and daughters, but favored sons and daughters, and makes them, with his Son, heirs of his lavish estate. 

Image: Detail, Stained glass, Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Florida

Second, in this letter John addresses his opponents who are also confused about God’s commandments. Thinking themselves to be above sin, they have no use for commandments that would define as sin certain things they wish to do. They live in some sort of transmoral zone, making up their own rules—small wonder they can’t think of themselves as sinners! Making up your own rules leads inevitably and inexorably to one place: hating one another.  John calls it what it is: walking in darkness. 

In a remarkably pastoral move, John reminds them of Jesus’s commandment to love one another. It’s an old commandment in one sense, for Israel had been told long ago: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). During his earthly ministry, Jesus had reaffirmed that commandment (Mark 12:31 and parallels). But at the last meal when he washed his disciples’ feet, he made it a new commandment: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). He makes the neighbor even closer: “one another.” He makes the standard no longer merely “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (The way you love yourself is extravagant enough, right?) The new standard is Jesus’s own love: “the way I have loved you” (love that washes feet and that lays down its life for its friends). 

John 17. Thus, the hallmark of this portion of Jesus’s High Priestly Prayer is that his disciples be sanctified in the truth (verses 17,19) and protected from the evil one (verse 15). While Jesus could have prayed that his disciples be taken right out of this world along with him, he prays that they stay in the world, under protection from the evil one who would pervert God’s Word (exactly as John finds later in his churches). As the Word does its deep work to purify hearts and motives, creating communities of disciples who truly love one another the way they have been loved by Jesus, they will know deep joy (verse 13) and the world will indeed be given reason to believe (John 13:34–35; 17:21). Dear Lord, may your prayer find its “Yes!” in us. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+