Exhortation, Fifth Sunday in Lent

Over the centuries, Christians have invented all sorts of lore about Satan, hell, and the underworld. Most of it is pure fancy. Dante is instructive in many ways; he is not instructive in giving us a map of hell.

This may seem harmless speculation, but at a fundamental level it is a denial of the gospel. According to the Scriptures, the Lord of Death is not Satan, Dis, Pluto, or any other mythical figure. All authority in heaven and earth, and under the earth, has been given to One, Jesus. He is the Lord of life; He is the Lord of the grave.

And in Him, we too are lords of death. Paul told the Corinthians, “ all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

All things are Christ’s and all things are ours because all things serve Him and us. It’s true that nothing can harm us, but that’s not the whole truth. More radically, everything helps us. Every pain that life brings, every disappointment, every failure, every loss, even death itself, as well as every success and every gain – all of it ministers to you because you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.

Lent is a time for meditating on the suffering and death of Jesus, but we miss the whole point if our meditation fills us with dread and gloom. By His death, Jesus has conquered death, and turned death itself into His servant and ours.

Paul calls Jesus the “firstborn from the dead.” Jesus is the first to rise, of course, but Paul means more than that. Jesus turns death inside out. Because of Jesus, death becomes servant of life, since He makes the grave the path to new and more abundant life. Jesus turns the tomb into a womb.

During Lent, think on these things.