[Sung Psalm: 49]
Paul thinks that it matters where you are buried. For Sarah it was to be buried in the promised land. For you and me – it is to be buried with Christ by baptism into his death!
If you have been united with Christ through baptism into his death, then sin and death no longer have dominion over you, because you share in the resurrection life of our Lord Jesus Christ!
After all, Paul says in Romans 6:3-4, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."
Last time we looked at why it was necessary for the Christ to be crucified.
But in the creed, there are three things in parallel: crucified, dead, and buried.
Some translations of the creed thought that sounded odd, and so worded it "was crucified, died, and was buried."
But the Creed used the same verb tense in all three:
was crucified
was dead
and was buried.
If you think about it, "was dead" communicates better than "died." Either one works. But "died" leaves open the question of what came next. "Was dead" strongly suggests that he is not dead any more!!
He was crucified.
He was dead.
And he was buried.
As we saw with the importance of naming Pontius Pilate in the creed, the focus is on the importance of these things happening in history.
So we start with how Jesus was dead – and how Jesus was buried – and then we will ask what that means for us to be dead and buried in him... |
