The Hope of Resurrection

This last week, I found myself deeply moved as I watched the funeral procession of Queen Elizabeth from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall. The marching lines of the guard of honour, the slow beat of the funeral dirge, the draped coffin on the gun carriage, and her body leaving Buckingham Palace for the last time made me realise that the Queen had died. Then, as the coffin entered Westminster Hall and the beautiful rendition of Psalm 139 filled the sparsely decorated room, I felt a sense of hope and quiet joy emerge amongst the sadness.
 
The singing of Psalm 139 reminded me of Augustine’s very clear understanding of why God, in Jesus, took on flesh like us. As Augustine puts it,
 
God He was, and in flesh He came;
for God could not die, flesh could die;
He came then in the flesh, that He might die for us.
 
But what speaks most to me is the simple reason Augustine gives for Jesus coming and dying. It is so we can
have the hope of resurrection shown unto us.
God, in great love and vulnerability, took on mortal flesh, and personally demonstrated to us the hope of resurrection. May you, this week, in your journey with the inevitable grief and loss that comes in this life, be aware of God’s great love and vulnerability which has shown to us “the hope of resurrection.”
 
Brian Holliday