Testing

Holy Saturday:
AM Psalm 95 & 88 • PM Psalm 27
Job 19:21-27a • Heb. 4:1-16 (morning) • Rom. 8:1-11 (evening)

Do you associate being close with God to being far from evil? Sometimes I feel if I have a strong enough Christian Rule of Life, I will learn to let go and will not feel anguish or despair or go through grief or trouble. I will be able to resist temptation, and when something bad happens, I’ll be able to serenely rise above it.

However, when God took a special interest in Job, poor Job did not have a good time at all (Job 19: 21: “Have pity on me, o you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me”). It’s the fact that he is one of the most righteous men around that Satan asked God for permission to ruin Job’s life. We pray for God to deliver us from evil but Job wasn’t delivered until after he was tested, and neither was Jesus, as we see on this Holy Saturday.

Even after Jesus was killed, he continued to be tested. In the tradition of the Apostle’s Creed, as his body laid in the grave, traditionally Jesus “descended into hell” and experienced the Harrowing of Hell. During the time that Jesus was in Hell, he was not afforded the luxury of sleeping in the grave. Instead, he fought to defeat death itself.

When we ask to be delivered from evil in the Lord’s Prayer, we are not inoculating ourselves from the trials of our lives. We are still going to be pushed far beyond our comfort zones. We can only ask for God to be there with us and not allow our souls to be broken by the dreadful things to which we are exposed and look forward to our own resurrections.

Written by Haley Hixson

I attend the 11:00 service and stick around for Coffee Hour. Come talk to me about Education for Ministry, Young Adult Book Club, or writing for Morning Reflections.