It is important not to rush away to the triumph of the Resurrection of Easter Sunday. Let us linger here for a while on Holy Saturday to remember this: From his hurried burial in that borrowed tomb on Good Friday until early Sunday morning, our Lord Jesus lay cold and lifeless–a dead man among the dead.
Like the woman in the parable, Jesus would look everywhere, go to any trouble, to save each person, living and dead.
By remaining dead until before Easter morning, our Lord descended to the lowest depths–including Hades itself–in order to become one with every single last, lost, and least soul.
LISTEN TO YOUR LIFE
What about you?
Do you treat all the people you meet with the respect that they deserve? Think of one or two persons whom you, for whatever reason, are tempted to think less of and treat less well.
Maybe it’s their fault that you feel that way. Maybe they “deserve” such a treatment. The problem is, if we want to walk with the Lord through this third door of mercy, we will need to learn to rise above our reactions to them, no matter how justified our reactions are.
For our Lord, no one is ever just “loose change”–even those we tend to dismiss as lost, last, or least. Every single person, no matter how seemingly small or how awfully sinful, is–incredibly enough!–valued and cherished by God.
Image sourc: CarracciAnnibale-The-dead-Christ-c.1582-Stuttgart-Staatsga