God's promise

If you travel to Jesus’ birthplace in Bethlehem, you’ll discover that it is now surrounded by an Orthodox cathedral. The spot on which he was laid is way down in the bowels of the building. To get to it, you must descend a narrow, steep, cramped and dark stairwell made out of stone into a tight, silent, and dark room about the size of a small living room. This small sanctuary is usually ablaze with candlelight from numerous votives.

His tomb isn’t much different. To get into it, first you have to descend a slippery, dark and wet slope down into a small unlit cavern about the same size. The tomb itself was carved out of the rock inside the cavern. One could crawl through a small window into a smaller room in which the body would have been laid. That room was just a little bigger than a bathroom. There was no light, no candles – nothing but cold, bare stone.

It’s a powerful image and reminder of what God did to save us. God became flesh and lived among us. He entered this tiny tomb as a human body. He was crucified on our behalf and raised for our redemption. His light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.

I remember trying to climb out of that tomb, and how difficult and frightening it was to navigate the slippery slope back out. I don’t like caves. They freak me out. I get claustrophobic, and then I worry I’m going to fall and break something and be trapped. I don’t like feeling like I’m stuck in a space that I can’t get out of.

But that’s what it means to be human. We’re stuck in a space we can’t get out of – a moment we can’t get out of. The tomb of death surrounds us at every moment we live. We live a life of tension, caught between Christ’s birth in a manger and his death on a cross. The church is his body, his broken body shattered by the cross; at the same time, we are also his risen body giving light to the world through our lives and through our deaths. Our creed names the freedom we have been given in Christ. Our faith is the road out of the tomb of death.

When I think about the depths of the tombs into which life throws me, I am grateful that I do not have to climb out on my own. During this Lenten season, I remember that God was born so that a church might grow up around his cross and proclaim his resurrection. We have a way out of the caves that we can’t climb out of on our own. God has entered the tomb for you and risen from it so you might be raised with him.

Lent is a wonderful time to recall the promises God has made to us and to be released from the tombs in which we live. God promises to raise us again at the last day, and we will share in God’s eternal life. We are given God’s gift of forgiveness, eternal life and the Holy Spirit and called to be a part of his Body, the church.

Remember this season that we are risen because Christ is risen.

Eric C. Alm, Pastor,

Parish of the Plains /

Weyerts Immanuel Lutheran Church