TODAY we experience the silence of the tomb while Jesus “slept in death,” as if resting from His harrowing passion. Then, tonight at the Easter Vigil, we will proclaim with the Creed that Jesus had descended into hell, trampled its gates, and broken Satan’s stranglehold on the human race. All night, we will wait in anticipation for His resurrection to fee us from the curse of sin and restore us to life in God.
We will also be reminded tonight of the night the Israelites passed on the shores of the Red Sea. Escaping into the desert after the angel of death had passed over them, they found themselves hemmed in, the sea before them and Pharaoh’s troops behind them. There they kept vigil, with a mysterious angel and a pillar of cloud guarding them through the night (Exodus 14:19). How keenly they must have hoped for deliverance! Their lives hung in the balance, and they could only stand firm in faith (Exodus 14:14). There was nothing else they could do. Everything depended on God.
Jesus’ disciples found themselves in a similar situation after his crucifixion. No amount of effort – not Peter’s grief at denying his Master nor the women’s kindly preparations to anoint Jesus’ body with spices – could bring the Master back to life. There was nothing they could do bug wait. But it is precisely here, at the end of all human resources, that God’s power shines through most gloriously. When we were enslaved to the devil, God loosed our chains.
Let us wait on the Lord tonight, expecting His power to move in us. We have only to “keep still,” and He will act on our behalf. Even if we are not able to attend the vigil, let us spend some time this evening “keeping watch” and waiting for the light of Christ to flood our hearts and break into our world. This is the “most blessed of all nights, chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!”