My rock and my fortress
by Neil Bergmann
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Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me (Psalm 31:3).
Read Psalm 31:1–4,15–16
Holy Saturday stands after the pain of Good Friday and in anticipation of the joy of Easter Sunday. We affirm in the Apostle’s Creed that after his death and burial, Jesus descended into hell before rising again on the third day.
Just as nature abhors a vacuum, so do we not like to leave a mystery unexplored, and we imagine what Jesus might be doing in hell. Was there a great cosmic battle between good and evil? Did Jesus lie passively in Satan’s realm, where Satan found that he could not hold this blameless victim? Is this where Satan found out that, through Jesus’ death, all had been declared blameless and all granted release from death? As a final act of obedience to Jewish law, was Jesus waiting through the Sabbath before his resurrection? Was Jesus separated from the Father and the Spirit for this day as the final anguish of his sacrificial death? So did Jesus face hell alone?
We are never alone, never separated from God, never separated from Father, Son and Spirit. Today’s verse from Psalm 31 makes this clear. God is our rock and fortress, a place of shelter and protection where we are safe and secure. We are defined as residents of the fortress, called Christians after the king of this fortress, Jesus Christ.
Because we bear the name of Christ, we are called to act on behalf of our Lord, as the psalm puts it, ‘for the sake of your name’. We do not act for our own sake, and we do not depend on our own strength and wisdom, but we act on behalf of our servant king. We continually need guidance and leadership from the source of all real power and strength. We are guided by the story of Easter. Victory over death comes not from military or political power but from Jesus’ obedience to the will of the Father. The cross turns from a symbol of death into one of life.
Jesus, guide me. Jesus, lead me – not where I want to go, but where you have called me. Guide me to find the lost, feed the hungry, and comfort the grieving. Amen.
Neil Bergmann is currently the chair of Lutheran Earth Care, Australia and New Zealand. After retiring, he recently completed a research Master of Theology at Flinders University, Adelaide, on eco-theology. He worships at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Rochedale, Queensland.
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