Let [All] The Children Come To Me

(Mark 10:14)

Does the devil still reside in hell? That was the question I got from a beloved parishioner a couple of days ago. What does that have to do with Jesus and Children? Allow me to explain.

We have been talking about in our church if hell [still] exists after Jesus had destroyed its powers over us. This week we lost another beloved parishioner at the age of 89, a full life of faith and joy in Christ. We were talking about the symbolism of the pall which is placed on the coffin as we give thanks for our baptism. This is how a memorial service begins in the Lutheran tradition. The usually long and decorated cloth is a reminder of the embrace we have in Christ for an eternity of assurance that by faith in him we are shielded from all the evil that insist in lurking around us. It is meant to replicate the tradition of the garment which infants receive when baptized. The idea is to provide a sensation of full circle, Jesus the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, always on our side, when we were claimed in faith as children of God.

So does the devil still reside in hell? Maybe, I honestly do not know. What I do know, is that God has created all God’s children at God’s image. It is like a mosaic of all kinds of beautiful faces of different ethnicities that only together can reveal something about what God is and does for us. All of us, his beloved children, which God allowed sharing the same baptism of the Son, can equally claim the same power that Jesus has to destroy death for all eternity.

Genesis 2:18-24; Psalm 8; Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16