St. Matthew 27:45-56

Nov. 17, 2021

45Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

47Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.

48And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.

49The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.

50Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

51And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

52And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

53And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

54Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

55And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him:

56Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children.

First, let me share that I have been blessed by some friendly conversation on Face Book in regard to the New Testament readings from Morning Prayer. Some very astute and knowledgeable women have mentioned the difference in readings between what they use and what I have posted on the blog. After checking with my priest, I am now using page xxxix of my 1928 Book of Common Prayer for Wednesday of the ’24th Sunday After Trinity’ week’s readings list. I’m grateful for their kindness and hope to see them in comments on the blog.

The world being the way it is, I’ve had a desperate need for Christmas – the joy and the hope and the peace – so it was a little jarring to read the verses for today. My heart wants to jump forward to that coming celebration of the birth of the Man that we read about in these verses. It’s difficult to reconcile the angels singing joy to the world with the sadness and horror of the Cross. But both of those events involve the same Man, Emmanuel – God with us. We know that the Cross leads to the Resurrection; we know how the earthly story ends. It’s just that right now, I feel a great need for the nativity story – followed by the Easter story.