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Questioning the Spirit

March 30, 2024

Job 14:1-14  |  1 Peter 4:1-8  |  Matthew 27:57-66  |  Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16

In today’s Gospel, Matthew 27:57-66, it reads, …” after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore, command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise, his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people. ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” So, they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.” There are two things that stand out for me in this Gospel. One is the word impostor. As the word suggests, the Pharisees believed Jesus to be a fraud. The second thing in this Gospel is when Pilate orders the guard of soldiers to secure the tomb. How ironic that in their attempt to prove Jesus a fraud, thereby posting a guard of soldiers at the tomb to prevent him from leaving, they solidified Jesus’s claim that after three days he did indeed rise again. 

It is the questioning of the Spirit that speaks to me personally. I was thirty something when I first served on a church vestry. Our first meeting as a group was participating in a silent retreat. If you know me, you may wonder if I was able to keep the silence. If you really know me, you would be right in thinking maybe not. However, it was an awakening experience resulting in my having time to think, to question my own belief. I remember asking God for a sign. I felt I needed something reality based for me to believe. Well, later that year on All Saint’s Day, I received my “sign”. The shortened version of the story is that I was in a car accident that could have easily resulted in a fatality – my fatality. I remember at the time of the accident asking God to make the car stop. And he did! I walked away with my car totaled. I also had a bump on the forehead, a bloody lip, and a broken fingernail, none of which I remember happening. So, like the doubting Pharisees receiving their sign of Jesus by being witness to a secure yet empty tomb, I received my sign as God heard my plea, spared me harm, and removed my doubt in him and our Savior Jesus Christ. The following is a poem I wrote during my silence at the vestry retreat.

Questioning the Sprit

His arms reach out, yet he does not touch me.

Do I question the Spirit?

Is my heart open – waiting – or does my mind fight for control?                                                                          

Must I believe completely before body and soul become one mind in your holy image?

Give me the courage to know you.

Renew the spirit of my mind and I shall find strength in my soul to do the things you have chosen for me to do.

Let me grow in your Spirit and offer redemption for the questioning of your will.

D. Lukens

March 18, 1989

Deb Lukens