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O God, for our redemption you gave your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer death on the cross, and by his glorious resurrection have delivered us from the power of the enemy. Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him who died and rose again for us. Grant this, we pray, through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Gregorian Sacramentary, 6th Century)
Thematic Collect
God of all mercy and grace, your only Son’s death and glorious resurrection have delivered us from the power of death and redeemed all creation. Grant that we may no longer look for the living among the dead and instead daily die to sin and rise to newness of life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Thoughts on the Readings
The Common Thread
May we have the confidence of Job! Because our Redeemer lives, we too shall live beyond this earthly death. Because God has become our salvation, we may enter through the gates of righteousness—his righteousness being that very entrance (John 14:6). Through Christ’s victory over death, we will sleep a while in death but be awakened to eternity. See the empty tomb, and believe!
First Reading • Job 19:23–27
Gutenberg printed 180 copies of his famous Bible. 135 copies were printed on reg paper and 45 on vellum. Only 16 complete copies remain in existence—12 printed on paper and four on vellum, or calfskin. Nearly 600 years later, they are still beautiful and readable. Old grave markers, because they are exposed to the weather, begin to wear much sooner and become difficult to read, especially if they were not deeply engraved.
Job wanted his words preserved in a way that it would be a lasting record, since his words were a confession of certain hope. Because he knew that his Redeemer lives, he was confident that long after stone, paper, and vellum were gone—indeed, even after his own skin had been destroyed—he would behold God in the resurrection.
Psalm • Psalm 118:15–29
What could we possibly brag about in this life that has any lasting value? Let our boast be in the Lord (2 Cor 10:17). He has given us his righteousness and opened the gates of heaven. So we say that we will not die. Rather, as Paul says, we will sleep (1 Thes 4:13) in the Lord, our salvation. Thus, the dead in Christ will rise (1 Thes 4:16) and live eternally, recounting the deeds of the Lord.
Second Reading • 1 Corinthians 15:51–57
Christians will not die, such as the world considers dying. We will be changed, having been clothed in immortality, our mortal bodies made imperishable. This will not happen because we have placated divinity, but because our Lord Jesus Christ has given us a glorious share in his victory over death. Death has been devoured in his victory. So we confess with the apostle that all “who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death” so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father, we too will be resurrected (Rom 6:3–4). Therefore, death has no sting, no power, no victory.
Gospel • John 20:1–18
Before the tomb could have been engraved, marking who had been laid to rest, Christ arose! Jesus had told the disciples that he would die and be raised again. Yet Mary and then Peter and John were distressed that his body was not in the tomb, for “as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead” (John 20:9). When John went in to the tomb, he saw it empty and believed. May we also stoop to see and believe.
