Thursday, March 7

The Mystery of Wood and Water 

“Deliver and Destroy”

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday.  We remember that we are but dust and ashes, and to dust we shall return. We recall that Adam was created from dust, and God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul.” (Gn. 2:7) As David said in Psalm 23, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou are with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”

The shadow of death hounds us each day. It is, indeed, like walking in a shadow or walking with our shadow. We cannot shake this clinging menace!

The Egyptians were walking in the shadow of death when the Israelites left Egypt with a child dead in each Egyptian household. Blinded more by greed than vengeance (which says something), the Egyptians pursued their fleeing former slaves. This covetous horde desired the power they once had over people. The Egyptian army of unbelief did not even turn back when the Lord made Himself a shield of light for His people.   

Such is the persistence of death.   Yet, staring down this formidable enemy with eyes of faith can turn burdens into blessings.

For example, what appears to be the 3^rd day of the Exodus, (the day after the Sabbath), would also turn out to be the death of this relentless shadow, and a foreshadowing of its ultimate undoing!

Moses, a man who received his name because he was drawn out of water, was instructed to hold up his staff over the waters. Curiously, this staff which began as “Moses’ staff” had become “the staff of God.”   That wooden staff, held up over what at first appeared as a watery grave for the fatigued faithful, would open up the wonders of life. Scripture notes that as the Israelites walked faithfully through the watery walls, they saw the lifeforms of the deep. The Israelites emerged on the other side – safe and given a ring-side seat for the soon-to-be-drowned army of death behind them. When Moses lowered the staff of God, Scripture says that the Israelites saw the former mighty charioteers of Egypt, now quite dead and destroyed on the shore. God’s mysterious sacraments reveal what’s really going on. Life conquers death!

Remarkably, God would use a wooden cross as an instrument of death and deliverance. That cross would come to us conveyed by the living breath of God’s Word, hovering over the waters of Baptism. In this mystery, death would drown, and God’s people could see in the visible elements what the words brought alive:  “Baptized into the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Immersed in the Living One Who first gave dust a soul and an identity in Adam, the baptized army of God, fears not this once dreadful shadow. (BTW – the next miracle was a tree making sick waters sweet… cross, death, baptism?!)

 The Holy Spirit shares what He sees in Baptism: “… having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. ¹³ When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, ¹⁴ having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. ¹⁵ When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” (Col. 2)

Disarmed rulers – death is disarmed and dethroned!   Resurrected and redeemed saints – now sit with their living Lord. The mystery of Baptism creates a new people destined for a promised land and called to follow the Lord of Life in a foreboding wilderness called the world.