JCK-at-large SITE

It was my Easter sunrise bike loop, somewhere around 6.30.  Country road, beautiful morning mist.  Out of the pre-dawn haze an old diesel came rattling down the road with one yellow headlight — and the sounds of a major ruckus on board!  A Panorama Security truck came into view, their truck hauling a bunch of yapping guard dogs. Boerboels and Alsatians, off to their daily duties — they pick them up at the SPCA, then drop them off at various city properties.  “What a job,” I thought, “hauling a trailer of dogs on Easter Sunday!”  I couldn’t imagine a worse assignment!

But then I wondered if maybe this was not perfectly appropriate!  As the morning brightened, and the sun’s filtered rays made shafts of light through the trees, it struck me that caging loud and unruly beasts and hauling them away on such a morning was not that far removed from the message of Easter! 

After all, the dog can be a symbol of Satan.  When hanging on the cross, our blessed Lord spoke the words of Psalm 22 in his cry of dereliction, the very psalm which says, “A band of dogs has compassed me about.”  What befitting words to describe Calvary!  And again the psalmist cries, “Deliver my darling soul, my only one, from the power of the dog.”

One commentary says, “The psalmist is speaking about his soul, his life, that which is most dear to every person…. His soul is dear, because it is his one and only soul… now under attack by Satan, that infernal Cerberus… cursed and cursing…. The power of the dog!  It is lethal and needs to be chained…. Only God can deliver us from him….  Cave canem, beware of the dog, for his power is great.”  

But this is exactly what our Lord accomplished through his finished work on the cross and resurrection!  He caged our ancient foe and disempowered him forever!  As the apostle Paul puts it, He “disarmed the powers and authorities [and] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Col 2:16).

Soon my Easter sunrise turned beautiful, absolutely still and luminous, all that raucous canine racket long gone.  Drowning out all the barking of the universe, I head the sound of Luther’s immortal hymn: 

“And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim, We tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure, For lo! his doom is sure,

One little word shall fell him.”