Benedictus before the Icon of the Resurrection

Benedictus, the song of Zechariah, is the usual canticle I sing at Matins. And whenever I sing these words my eyes are drawn to the icon of the resurrection above our family altar. Zechariah spoke to his little child, John, his mouth newly released from that nine month silence:

"And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His way, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins..."

Did he know? Could he have guessed? In the upper left corner of the icon, St. John the Baptist, his hand pointing to Christ, as always. He went before the Lord not only in life, but in death. Always the forerunner. And what a message of joy he must have brought to the dead - to our first parents and to all the godly of the ages: "He's alive now! He's standing on the earth! The Destruction of Death and Its Undoing. In human and flesh and blood. I've seen Him, and I tell you, not long before He comes here! Wait, you'll see! In this darkness a light will dawn and He will rescue us from this death forever!"

"...through the tender mercy of our God, when the Day shall dawn upon us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

And there He is, the Dawning Light of God's Unending Day in the center of the icon: the Risen Christ, shining in glory. His strong hands reaching out, yanking Father Adam and Mother Eve, and so the whole human race in them, all who sat in sad darkness of the shadow of death. Beneath His feet, the shattered doors of Hades and Satan bound as a captive. He descended to the dead to bring to them into the light of His glory forevermore. As the Catalog of Testimonies, appended to the Book of Concord, cites St. Cyril: "The soul, having obtained union with the Word, descended into hell; but using its divine power and efficacy, it said to the ones in bondage, 'Go forth!'"

A Day has dawned upon us in the Sun of Righteousness over which death has no power whatsoever! Each Matins reminds us of this as we sing with Zechariah. What is left to say but:

"Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen!"