Winter: the resurrected Lord

Sunday, April 5, 2026
    Easter
Meditation:
    When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.
    —John 21:9-12 (ESV)
Quotation:
    It was undoubtedly a real body. Hundreds of people could not have been so mistaken, especially when Jesus offered clear evidence of it. But it was not an earthbound body. It was something that bore a developmental relationship to an earthly human body, but it was not identical with it. There was clearly a continuity of life between the body of Jesus and the body of the resurrected Jesus, but in the time between his death and resurrection it had undergone a very fundamental change. That, at least, seems clear.
    So much for the list of dissimilarities: the body of Jesus after the resurrection had a different appearance and also a different form. It was like the previous body, it had some sort of developmental relationship to it, but it was obviously not identical with it.
    Now we must consider the similarities. Strangely, they all came down to one factor, but that factor is so important that it outweighs all the dissimilarities. It is simply this: Jesus before and after the resurrection was undeniably the same person. No matter what extraordinary changes had taken place in his bodily form, all who knew him well had no doubt at all who he was. They “knew” it was the Lord.
    ... David Winter, Hereafter, Wheaton, Ill.: Shaw Publishers, 1972, p. 58-59 (see the book)
    See also John 21:9-12; Luke 24:30-31,36-43; John 20:26-27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, though I have not seen You with my eyes, I know it is You in my heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Collyer: Easter

Saturday, April 4, 2026
    Holy Saturday
Meditation:
    But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
    —Luke 24:1-7 (ESV)
Quotation:
Morning breaks upon the tomb,
Jesus dissipates its gloom.
Day of triumph through the skies—
See the glorious Saviour rise.

Christians dry your flowing tears,
Chase those unbelieving fears;
Look on his deserted grave,
Doubt no more his power to save.

Ye who are of death afraid,
Triumph in the scatter’d shade:
Drive your anxious cares away,
See the place where Jesus lay.
    ... William Bengo Collyer (1782-1854), Hymns, partly collected and partly original, London: Longman, Hunt, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1812, p. 887 (see the book)
    See also Luke 24:1-12; Matt. 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-10; John 20:1-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have broken the curse we were under. Show me where I must spread the good news.

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Meynell: all alone

Friday, April 3, 2026
    Good Friday
Meditation:
    The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
    —Matthew 28:5-7
Quotation:
All night had shouts of men and cry
    Of woeful women filled His way;
Until that noon of sombre sky
    On Friday, clamour and display
Smote Him; no solitude had He.
No silence, since Gethsemane.

Public was death; but Power, but Might,
    But Life again, but Victory,
Were hushed within the dead of night,
    The shutter’d dark, the secrecy.
And all alone, alone, alone
He rose again behind the stone.
    ... Alice Meynell (1847-1922), A Father of Women: and other poems, Burns & Oates, 1917, p. 30 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 28:5-7; 27:55-56; Mark 15:40-41; John 19:25-27
Quiet time reflection:
    You rose again, according to the promise of the Father. Because of You, I now have the same promise.

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Mary Elizabeth Coleridge: Good Friday

Thursday, April 2, 2026
    Maundy Thursday
Meditation:
    When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
    —John 21:15-17 (ESV)
Quotation:
Good Friday in my heart! Fear and affright!
My thoughts are the disciples when they fled,
My words the words that priest and soldier said,
My deed the spear to desecrate the dead.
And day, Thy death therein, is changed to night.

Then Easter in my heart sends up the sun.
My thoughts are Mary, when she turned to see.
My words are Peter, answering, “Lov’st thou me?”
My deeds are all Thine own drawn close to Thee.
And night and day, since thou dost rise, are one.
    ... Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907), Poems, London: Elkin Mathews, 1908, p. 148-149 (see the book)
    See also John 21:15-17; Ps. 51:7; Isa. 53:2-11; Matt. 26:56; Mark 14:50; John 16:32; 19:34
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I return Your love to me.

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Watt: an Easter vow

Wednesday, April 1, 2026
    Commemoration of Frederick Denison Maurice, Priest, teacher, 1872
Meditation:
    But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
    —Romans 6:17-18 (ESV)
Quotation:
I bind my heart, this tide
To the Galilean’s side,
To the wounds of Calvary—
To the Christ who died for me.

I bind my soul this day
To the brother far away
And the brother near at hand,
In this town and in this land.

I bind my heart in thrall
To God, the Lord of all,
To God, the poor man’s Friend,
And the Christ whom He did send.

I bind myself to peace,
To make strife and envy cease.
God, knit Thou sure the cord
Of my thralldom to my Lord.
    ... Lauchlan MacLean Watt (1867-1957), included in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, James Dalton Morrison, ed., New York: Harper & Bros., 1948, p. 373 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 6:17-18; Deut. 6:13; 10:20; Josh. 24:14-15; 1 Sam. 12:24; Isa. 56:6-7; John 3:34
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, to You I owe all loyalty because of Your death and resurrection.

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Donne: sleep and death

Tuesday, March 31, 2026
    Commemoration of John Donne, Priest, Poet, 1631
Meditation:
    But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
    —1 Thessalonians 4:13-15 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Though natural men, who have induced secondary and figurative consideration, have found out this... emblematical use of sleep, that it should be a representation of death, God, who wrought and perfected his work, before Nature began, (for Nature was but his Apprentice, to learn in the first seven days, and now is his foreman, and works next under him) God, I say, intended sleep only for the refreshing of man by bodily rest, and not for a figure of death, for he intended not death itself then. But man having induced death upon himself, God hath taken man’s creature, death, into his hand, and mended it; and whereas it hath in itself a fearfull form and aspect, so that Man is afraid of his own creature, God presents it to him, in a familiar, in an assiduous, in an agreeable, and acceptable form, in sleep, that so when he awakes from sleep and says to himself, shall I be no otherwise when I am dead, than I was even now, when I was asleep, he may be ashamed of his waking dreams, and of his melancholy fancying out a horrid and an affrightful figure of that death which is so like sleep. As then we need sleep to live out our threescore and ten years, so we need death, to live that life which we cannot outlive.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. III, London: John W. Parker, 1839, Devotions XV, p. 566 (see the book)
    See also 1 Thess. 4:13-15; John 11:11-13; 1 Cor. 15:17-22,51-57
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, when I sleep, may I always awaken in Your presence. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Berdyaev: the entrance to heaven

Monday, March 30, 2026
Meditation:
    For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison...
    —1 Peter 3:18-19 (ESV)
Quotation:
    For Christian consciousness, paradise is the Kingdom of Christ and is unthinkable apart from Christ. But this changes everything. The cross and the crucifixion enter into the bliss of paradise. The Son of God and the Son of Man descends into hell to free those who suffer there... To conquer evil, the good must crucify itself.
    ... Nicholas Berdyaev (1874-1948), The Destiny of Man, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1937, Hyperion Press, 1979, p. 292 (see the book)
    See also 1 Pet. 3:18-19; Luke 23:43; Matt. 16:21; John 14:2-3; 19:11; Heb. 9:23-26; Rev. 2:7
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have ransomed me, at what a cost! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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