Tag: Easter Sunday

“As the women bowed their faces to the ground in terror, the two men asked them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you while He was still in Galilee” –John 24:5-6.

We’ve each done it, haven’t we? Even those of us with the most robust faith have failed to take Jesus at His Word on one occasion or another. Ashamedly, I know I have. We allow our fleshly expectations to overshadow—completely shade at times, our pure spiritual beliefs. And then we wonder why we miss what it is God is doing right before our eyes! Yet how can we honestly expect to recognize new life when we’re looking for it through the lens of our spiritually dead eyes?

Jesus loved these women who came to His tomb heads downcast, spices in hand, ready to prepare Him for the time they believed He’d spend entombed. He knew that they would come to His grave one way yet leave another! That hope restored would wipe out all traces of their despair. That joy would throw its coat over mourning’s shoulders, enlivening it once again. He knew His strength would replace their weakness, becoming the very strength they’d need to carry them all the way to the finish line! So, now imagine their disbelief. The shock and confusion, the excitement and joy they must have felt when they found His tomb was empty! I know, I know! These women were standing outside the entrance of Jesus’ grave, so it was reasonable then, for them to expect that what’s been buried to remain dead—reasonable to their carnal minds, that is.

Conversely, if anyone of us hopes to ever rise above what has passed for truth in our lives, we must allow our minds to be transformed and renewed. We need to be willing to die to our preconceived, closed-off carnal truths and, instead, allow ourselves to be opened to The Truth—to God’s Truth. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will” –Romans 12:2.

And if we who believe know this, know that God’s Word is Truth, have experienced its transformative, life-changing power for ourselves—why then, do we still doubt Him?

Why do we forget about His unwavering character and promises? His power to accomplish within us what He has already accomplished around us—above and below us? Why do we forget that He truly is The All-Powerful God? And that His Resurrection isn’t just a one-day celebration—at least it shouldn’t be. Yes, Easter Sunday will pass, but remember, Jesus remained on the earth for 40 days after His resurrection. He could have just as easily instantly ascended to His Father. His earthy work was finished after all—His birth, death, and resurrection—sin defeated on His Cross. So why did He stay?

Some say it was because our Lord knew man’s weakness. Knew that even though He walked amongst us as a man, that He fulfilled every scripture, Jesus knew that we would need to see certain ongoing proofs of life before we’d allow our hearts and minds ever to hope again. To rise up and soar once more. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves—ask Peter. Jesus knew that Peter would forget—Matthew, Mary, and Andrew too. Forget all that He’d told them about what the Son of Man must endure—and that He would rise again on the third day—even though it would appear death had won. “Jesus understands every weakness of ours, because he was tempted in every way that we are. But he did not sin! So whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved kindness, and we will find help” –Hebrews 4:15-16.

Satan thought he’d won that first Good Friday. Death and despair had a plan for our lives. Jesus’ empty tomb put an end to that plan, listen: “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” –Colossians 2:13-15.

So, let me ask you, my friend, what grave are you standing before today? What are you mourning? What loss has hit you so hard it’s robbed you of life and time—of your hope? Of allowing yourself to believe, as you once did, that your life can be joy-filled, hope-full? What caused you to let go of that vision God gave you? The dream that made you get out of bed every morning, excited to engage with the world. What happened to the spark of the Divine deep down in your belly? Might it be possible that God has allowed you to experience this tomb, this seeming end of a thing so that you too might be an eyewitness to His resurrection power? Your dead hopes and dreams, those promises you held dear, infused again with new life? Your life, hope-full once more?

Remember brothers and sisters, Jesus drew only those that loved Him, followed after Him, yearned for Him, had yielded their hearts to Him—to His empty tomb. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here! See the place where they put Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you” –Mark 16:6-7.

Then, He spent the next 40 days demonstrating to His friends that He truly was alive. That He alone has the power to not only to forgive our sins and heal our bodies, to bring us from death to Life in His Son, and to teach us that God alone has the final Word over death. That He alone has the power to resurrect our long-dead hopes and dreams. You have not lost what God has promised you. God is not a man that He can lie. Jesus said death could not hold Him—and it didn’t. So, if He has spoken a Word over you, given you a plan for some ministry, a vision to build, a desire to serve and grow and bear fruit for Him—then believe He will bring it to pass—in His time, not yours.

Remember, Jesus’ friends thought they’d lost their reason to hope too. They thought all that they had loved and yearned for was dead—sealed-up inside a garden tomb. It took a herald to remind them not to go looking for life in places intended to hold dead things. “I am the gate. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” –John 10:9-11.

You’ll never see your hopes come to pass if you continue to show up ready to bury them.

My friends, Jesus said He would restore. He said He would provide. He said you’d go and do and plant and water and reap. So be open to seeing the vision God has given you through today’s eyes. You didn’t get it wrong back then—you just needed three more days of preparation. “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” –John 20:19-20.

Dear friend, if you have yet to meet this Jesus who breathes new life into us. The One who resurrects dead hopes and dreams, who uses what others see as useless, then I encourage you today, right now, to ask Him to come into your heart. Ask Him to forgive your sins. To restore within you what life has taken out of you. He will. He wants to. He’s just waiting for you to invite Him into your heart. “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” –Revelation 3:20.