Saturday, March 30, 2013

Meditation on Daniel 6 for the Easter Vigil


✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    This final reading from Daniel teaches as clearly as any of the previous readings about Christ’s burial and resurrection, and about our own dying and rising with Him.
    Daniel was one of many Israelites who had been taken captive by the Babylonians and carried away to live there in exile.  During the 70 years of exile, these worshipers of the Lord were outsiders, strangers in a strange land.  They longed to return to the Promised Land which God had given them.
    Isn’t that also how it is for God's New Testament people?  We also as Christians are like exiles in a foreign land, carried away for a time because of our sin.  This is not our true home.  St. Paul writes in Philippians, "Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself."  As citizens of heaven we do not desire to follow the ways of the world, and therefore the world is often set against us.  The citizens of the world will try to make trouble or trip up those who are faithful to the truth of the Word.  In that sense we are not only in foreign territory but we are in enemy territory.
    That was certainly how it was for Daniel.  Because he was faithful to God and because he was distinguishing himself above all others in his service to the king, his enemies set out to undo him.  They knew that Daniel faithfully worshiped the Lord daily, praying toward Jerusalem.  And so they tricked the king into making a law that would forbid Daniel or anyone else from doing that for 30 days.  Anyone who broke that law was to be thrown into the den of lions to be killed.  Daniel, of course, refused to obey such a godless order, and he was condemned to death.
    This is also how it was with Jesus.  In His day he was upsetting the power structure by refusing to bow down to the man made ways of the Jewish leaders, and therefore he was a threat.  They set about to get rid of him.  Though he was blameless in every way, yet through deceit and trickery and betrayal they schemed to have him arrested and sentenced to death.  Not only did they bring false testimony against Jesus, but then they manipulated the mob into forcing Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus.  Just as Darius didn't want to kill Daniel, Pontius Pilate didn't want to kill Jesus.  But through the conniving of Christ's enemies, he decided that was the politically expedient thing to do.  In the end he sent Christ off to His death as the innocent Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
    When Daniel was placed into the pit where the lions were, a stone was brought and laid over the entrance to the pit.  And the king sealed the entrance with his own signet ring.  So also Christ was laid in the tomb, and a stone was laid across the entrance to the tomb.  Furthermore, that entrance was sealed with a Roman seal and guarded by Roman guards so that no one could come and steal the body.  Both Daniel and Christ seemed to have been defeated.
    But when Darius came to the den of lions early in the morning (as it was on Easter), he called out to see if Daniel was still alive.  And Daniel responded, "My God sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths, so that they have not hurt me."  Is that not exactly what Christ did in an eternal sense through His death and burial?  He is the Angel, the Messenger of the Father, who shut the lion's mouth.  I Peter 5:8 says that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  But Christ through His death confronted the lion and defeated him.  He shut his mouth forever.  For He took away the sin with which Satan could mangle us.  Now the devil has no power over us, just as the lions had no power over Daniel.  The beasts of Satan and sin can no longer bring us any eternal harm.  Christ has shut the lion's mouth.
    Daniel was taken up out of the pit unharmed.  So also Christ arose from the tomb in His full resurrection glory as the conquering Son of God.  But all those who were set against Daniel were thrown into the lions' den in Daniel's place, and it is written, "The lions overpowered them, and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den."  So it will be for all those who are set against Christ and against those whom He has chosen in baptism.  Those who lay traps for the people of God will be caught in their own snares.  Trusting in Christ and clinging to Him, we will see our vindication in the end.  Satan and all those who reject or ignore Christ will be cast into the pit of hell. 
    Let us then live patiently as exiles in this world.  Let us pray with the Psalmist, "Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; In You I take shelter."  For truly the Lord is our shelter from Satan, the world, and the grave.  He is a mighty refuge and a strong fortress to save us.  He has gone down into the pit and He has come out vindicated and victorious, and He now gives us to share in His resurrection.  Even as Easter will surely be revealed in all its glory in the morning, so our Lord Jesus will surely be revealed in all His glory when He comes again.  And we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, no longer exiled, but home with Him in the New Jerusalem above.  
What Darius the king said is certainly true of our Lord Jesus.
“For He is the living God,
And steadfast forever;
His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed,
And His dominion shall endure to the end.
He delivers and rescues.”

✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

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