Day 29: EASTER: "The Gates of Everlasting Life"

DAY 29

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK FIVE: SUNDAY 12 APRIL 2020

EASTER

“The Gate of Everlasting Life”

Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin  by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

- Prayer for Easter Day, The Book of Common Prayer

Jesus speaks of not even the gates of hell being able to prevail against his church, gates which, in Dante’s “Inferno,” have inscribed above them these frightening words: “Abandon all hope, you who enter here.” Posited opposite this grim reality is the distant gate to which the  pilgrim Christian is directed in Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” above which he finds these hopeful words, “Knock, and it shall be opened to you,” echoing the words of Jesus. It is an Easter invitation.

This stark division is portrayed in a beatitude found in the Book of Revelation, 22:14-15: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and anyone who loves and practices lying.”   

We have become too comfortable in our avoidance of the uncomfortable, yet the dichotomy of life is a reality – good/evil, right/wrong, light/darkness, truth/falsehood, God/Satan, the gates of hell/the gate of everlasting life. Jesus lines it out this way: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14. This is what Easter is all about – a resurrection that leads to life.

Reflective question: Rising from death, Christ has “opened to us the gate of everlasting life,” that begins when we are born again. Have you entered in?

Reflective scripture: Psalm 100:4 – “Enter his gates with thanksgiving.”

Reflective hymn: “Close to Thee – Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)

Lead me thro’ the vale of shadows, bear me o’er life’s fitful sea;

Then the gate of life eternal may I enter, Lord, with Thee.

Close to Thee, close to Thee, close to Thee, close to Thee;

Then the gate of life eternal may I enter, Lord, with Thee.