It’s a line in the hymn “living he loved me”. The chorus goes
Living he loved me, Dying he saved me, Buried he carried my sins far away. Rising he justified, freely for ever. One day he’s coming, oh glorious day.
I’ve written recently about life between death and resurrection. I’ve talked about the way in which the whole of life, history and our individual lives is shaped by The Cross and The Resurrection. This is seen in lots of mini death and resurrection moments in our lives. Then we’ve thought about that kind of Saturday moment between Friday and Sunday, when we know that a kind of death has happened but it does not yet seem that resurrection is here. What does that look like?
Well it struck me and the lines of this song have helped crystalise the thought that if there are things that need to be put to death whether sinful desires and habits, idols or whispered accusations and lies, even the lies we tell ourselves, then as well as putting them to death, we need a good burial.
Jesus was put into a tomb, the tomb was closed with a great stone and it was sealed, then a guard was set. Those things were the external marker that a body was put in there. Burial is that point in grieving when we are forced to come to terms with the truth that the person really has gone, the really are dead, they aren’t coming back. At that point, for Christians, we have closer in terms of the relationship we had to that person in this life. However, it also speaks of hope. The day we buried my mum was a statement that we weren’t clinging on, we knew we weren’t going to get mum back with all of her frailties, the pan she had been suffering to try and delay that point when we would have to say goodbye again. However, we were able to look forward with better hope to the day when we and mum will received resurrection bodies and rise to meet the returning king Jesus.
I believe that this means that we need markers put in place. That’s one reason why public sin involves public church discipline with the hope of public repentance. That discipline in effect marks out the metaphorical tomb. There may be other costly ways that we mark our the burial of something that belongs dead and buried in the past. I’m reluctant to suggest specifics because it will be different from person to person and circumstance to circumstance. Burial might mean changing your route home to stay clear of temptation, changing your job, not having wifi at home or having an accountability system set up. I think the themes there can be seen in terms of changed patterns and new accountability. You might want to work this through with someone else.
It’s when we know that the old life is well and truly dead and buried, carried far away that we can properly look forward to resurrection.
Faithroots 