“Lord, take my hand and lead me / Upon life’s way.” Where is He leading us, life-long and especially in these terrible pandemic times? Where He Himself has gone. “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).
Following Him to glory. “Jesus Christ…has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him” (1 Peter 3:22). Here’s my pandemic point: Jesus route went through hell. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). He endured agony we cannot imagine, for us, the Righteous One for the unrighteous. Only then did He rise and ascend. “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26).
So with us. “Think it not strange that he brings a soul low, very low, which he means to comfort and exalt very high in grace and glory: that he leads it by hell-gates to heaven.” On earth you might go through some bad neighborhoods to get to a wonderful destination. Archbishop Leighton’s commentary on 1 Peter is a devotional treasure. He says we pass by “hell-gates” to eternal glory (383). That in two ways. First, through faith we are united with Him in His death and await our own glorification around His throne. We receive His gifts without enduring the hell of suffering for sin. But second, when we pass by “hell-gates” in this life, pandemics and other trials, we do so filled with our victorious destination in mind, walking in His footsteps, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). After Jesus was made alive in the grave, He “descended into hell” to proclaim His victory over the disobedient spirits (Apostles Creed, 1 Peter 3:19). Then He ascended. Thus, move on with confidence, the “gates of hell shall not prevail” (Matthew 16:18).
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. So that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7). “So take my hand and lead me, / Unto the end” (Lutheran Service Book, 722: 1, 3).
Comments