Wednesday, April 4, 2018

He is NOT Here; He is Risen

Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Saturday evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus’ body.  Very early on Sunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb.  On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”  But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside.  When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side.  The women were shocked, but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed.  You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He isn’t here!  He is risen from the dead!  Look, this is where they laid his body.  Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee.  You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.”  The women fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, and they said nothing to anyone because they were too frightened.  Mark 16:1-8(NLT)
After six weeks of Lenten season focusing on fasting, praying, and facing the cross, it is now an incredible lifting of a weight to bask in the resurrection.  Beating, blood, and a borrowed tomb are left behind; with death eternally-defeated, we embrace the living Lord in His majesty and honor.
This scene, with the women discovering an angel sitting in the tomb, where they expected to find Jesus’ body, and them mistaking the angel for a young man always brings an ironic smile to my face.  I’ve never been accused of being a radical feminist, but considering it was a male-dominated society, it has always amused me that the men were in hiding while the women went to respectfully honor the body of their Lord.
Even more ironic is how much this scene highlights the distance our culture wants to put between itself and the truth.  For instance, if you shop online, or go to retail stores to look for “angels” you will find something like 99.999% of the statues have a feminine, almost dainty appearance.  That is a far cry from the warrior-like beings you actually encounter in Scripture.
But…I digress…this isn’t about an angel, or even the women, per se; this is all about a missing body.  But, once again putting aside this culture’s fascination with bodies that should be in a grave, but are The Walking Dead, Jesus was not that…at ALL!!! 
If you noticed, at the end of this encounter with the angel, the women, having just been told Jesus is walking around alive, do not immediately assume he has become a zombie.  They’re overwhelmed, because dead men DON’T walk!  And they’re so overwhelmed, they keep this news to themselves.
And this brings us to the rub of it all…when it comes to the resurrection:
·       it’s ok to be overwhelmed – it is overwhelming to leave death behind
·       it’s ok to tremble – it is frightning to see the natural and expected overturned
·       it’s ok to wonder and ponder over such monumental considerations – it’s confusing (at the very least) to entertain the idea of eternity!
The one thing NOT alright when you encounter the resurrection is to keep it to yourself.
For You Today
You’ve been somber for six weeks, fasting, praying and facing the cross.  There was blood, a body, and a borrowed tomb.  It’s about time we do with the Good News of resurrection what Jesus said about Lazarus coming out of that tomb:
Take the wraps off this Good Gospel News…Loose it…let it go!
1 Hand-PenYou chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.


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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

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