Confident.Faith

Today we commemorate Joanna, Mary, and Salome, the three faithful women who visited Christ’s tomb early on the morning of the first Easter. These women bore myrrh and others items to dress the body of Christ, but instead found the tomb empty, Christ having risen. These women serve as examples of humble service to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Today we commemorate Joseph of Arimathea. A wealthy man from the village of Arimathea, Joseph owned an unused tomb in the vicinity of Golgotha, where Christ was crucified. A devout man, and member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph was eagerly awaiting the Kingdom of God. In contrast to many who fled for fear of the Jews, Joseph went to Pilate and requested the body of Christ, and, together with Nicodemus, placed the body in the tomb.

Today we commemorate Robert Barnes, Confessor and Martyr. Born in England in the late 1400s, Robert Barnes studied theology and eventually became a prior of the Augustinian monastery at Cambridge. Exiled to Germany, partly for distributing Bibles in English and for having converted to Lutheranism, Dr. Barnes would meet Martin Luther in Wittenberg, and the two would become friends. Upon his return to England, Dr. Barnes would share his Lutheran faith with King Henry VIII, who was initially receptive. However, changing political and ecclesiastical winds in England would eventually spell Dr. Barnes’ downfall. On 30 July 1540, Robert Barnes was burned at the stake on a charge of heresy, becoming one of the first Lutheran martyrs. Luther would later publish Barnes’ confession of faith, noting of Barnes that he was “[a] good, pious dinner guest and houseguest … [a] holy martyr, St. Robert Barnes.”

Today we commemorate Mary, Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany, whose faith is recorded in the Gospels. When Lazarus died, Jesus raised him from the dead and spoke to Martha, Lazarus’s sister: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.” Later, shortly before Jesus was crucified, Mary anointed His feet with oil and wiped them with her hair — unknowingly readying Christ for burial.