Friday • 5/12/2023 •
Week of 5 Easter
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 106:1–18; Daniel 12:1–13; Romans 14:13–23; Luke 8:40–56
This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 10 (“The Second Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 55:6–11; BCP, p. 86); 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 bring to our lives 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 Friday of the Fifth week of Easter. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!”
Daniel 12 and resurrection hope. Back in Daniel 9, we saw how the Messiah, the Anointed Prince, would usher in God’s Jubilee. He would “put an end to sin, … atone for iniquity, … bring in everlasting righteousness.” He would do so by being “cut off”—that is to say, he would himself become the final and perfect sacrifice for sin (Daniel 9:24,26). This very thing the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for us on Calvary (Hebrews 9:26; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 John 3:5,8).
Back in Daniel 7, we also saw how the Son of Man would come before the Ancient of Days and receive all dominion (Daniel 7:13–14). This very thing took place when the resurrected Christ ascended to the Father’s right hand, received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and began distributing his royal gifts to his people (Acts 1–2; Ephesians 4).
Image: Church of Panagia tou Arakos, nave, center bay, drum, wall paintings, Lagoudera, Cyprus - Prophet DanielWinfield, David, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
In Daniel 12, the prophet receives a final glimpse into the effects of the future Messiah’s ministry. His people will first share his sufferings and afterwards his glory. For a symbolic three and a half years (“a time, two times, and half a time”—Daniel 12:7), God’s people will be under attack. Thus, the book of Revelation says that the Church, under the figure of the woman of Revelation 12, is being kept safe in the wilderness, “where she is nourished for twelve hundred and sixty days”—Revelation 12:6). The entire age of the church is summed up in this fashion. In the light of eternity, the season of the travails of God’s holy people is short and limited, no matter how long its temporal span nor how desperate its circumstances.
Finally, though, when all seems lost (“when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end”—Daniel 12:7), there will be resurrection. Everyone whose name has been written in the book by faith, everyone who has “gone to sleep” in hope, everyone whose life has been purified and cleansed and refined by the indwelling Spirit of Christ “shall awake … to everlasting life” (Daniel 12:1–2,10). They will “shine like the brightness of the sky,” for as Paul will later say, they will bear “an eternal weight of glory” (Daniel 12:3; 2 Corinthians 4:17).
Daniel’s book thereby closes by dramatically setting before us the great “either/or” of life: “…some [will rise] to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). The Lord Jesus puts his own imprimatur on this truth: “[T]he hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28–29). The destiny of every one of us is, to repeat the memorable line from C. S. Lewis is to “live forever as immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.” It is on each of us to choose well and wisely.
Luke 8 and resurrection hope. The prospect of resurrection confers profound value upon every human being who ever has lived or will live. The Gospel writers display this truth in their various descriptions of Jesus’s healing ministry. Thus, today’s accounts present the healing power that flows from the hem of his garment (Luke 8:42b–48) and from his mere word uttered from a distance (Luke 8:40–42a,49–56).
Romans 14 and resurrection hope. And we who love him—we are called to love and value those whom Jesus loves and values in the same way he loves and values them. We know that there are no mere mortals among us. Further, we know that he has come more for the weak than for the strong, and entirely for the unrighteous rather than the righteous. Thus, the apostle Paul outlines the care and circumspection with which we treat one another: “Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another” (Romans 14:13). We treasure and make room for each other—even, or especially, in areas where we may think ourselves better informed or more solidly formed than others. We do so for the sake of the one who loved us when we were unlovely, and we do so mindful of the fact that we are helping one another towards either the most glorious or the most horrendous of prospects: the resurrection of the just, or the awful alternative.
Collect for the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+