Mar 12, 2024
(Is. 49:8-15; Ps.145:8-9,13-14,17-18; Jn.5:17-30)
“Just as the Father possesses life in Himself,
so He has granted it to the Son to have life in Himself.”
Here the great mystery of the unity of Father and Son is revealed, and so also our salvation.
God is life. The Father is the great I AM, He who will be what He will be and do what He will do – He who holds the world and all its wonders in His creating Hand. And Jesus is as He is. He shares absolutely in the Life that is the Father. “Speaking of God as His own Father, [He is] thereby making Himself God’s equal.” And this perfect union is most clearly evident in the fact that “the Father has given over to Him power to pass judgment.” For who can judge the soul of man but God, and so, who is Jesus but God Himself?
And this union of Father and Son in the absolute love that gives proof of the Spirit’s presence, and thus completes the Holy Trinity, is the key to our readings today. Thus, though the thrust of the Word is our own salvation from sin and death, this is only effected in the love of the Father for the Son – for it is in our own union with Jesus and in His washing us clean from sin by standing in our place upon the cross that we find union with the Father, that we find the Life to which we all are called… in whom we find our home of love.
The Lord says, “I will cut a road through all my mountains and make my highways level.” Jesus the Son is that road by which the Father “comforts His people and shows mercy to His afflicted” by leading them back to Him, guiding them “beside springs of water” that “they shall not hunger or thirst” but “find pasture” in His arms. For “can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?” Greater than any mother’s love is the Lord’s love for us, and this He makes known through His only Son.
Brothers and sisters, “the dead shall hear the voice of God’s Son, and those who have heeded it shall live.” Even now the Lord is “saying to the prisoners: Come out! To those in darkness: Show yourselves!” Out from the tombs He calls us, for He is “compassionate toward all His works” and desires in His perfect will that all share in His holiness, in His Life. Let us do right in Him, and as His Son we, too, shall live.
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O LORD, from the tombs let us come forth
at the sound of your Son’s voice.
YHWH, you are kind and merciful and so you send your only Son to reveal your loving will, to draw all unto you and so to eternal life. Let us heed His voice and so your own; let us thus come to your kingdom.
On your holy mountain let us make our home, dear LORD. Though desolate we may be, seemingly abandoned by you, far from your grace… yet you call us back to you and assure us of your loving kindness in the word and the Person of your Son. You do not forget us; let us not forget the wonders of your love you show us in Jesus.
Your Son shall judge all men’s souls. To Him you have given this power, O LORD. For He is One with you and does only your will, and so His judgment is your own. May we be so united with your will and your judgment in Jesus your Son that we shall ever know your surpassing love and come to dwell with you in Heaven.