Wednesday, April 20,
2022
But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes. The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.” Then they remembered that he had said this. So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it. However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.
Peter had a front row seat to seeing five thousand fed
with a boy’s lunch, healings by the truckload, a meeting with long dead
prophets Moses and Elijah, and being witness to Lazarus (still wrapped in a
death shroud) walking out of a tomb that’d been sealed for four days. And with all that evidence, the forewarning
from Jesus, and the announcement of angels of resurrection, he still went home from
the tomb scratching his head in disbelief! Peter…you gotta love him!
Peter had the Wait….What?
syndrome. It’s what happens when your
brain is on vacation and something wonderful happens…and you’ve brain-slept
through it all. Suddenly there is a
grand, beautiful, life-changing reality filling your eyes, heart, and soul, and
you just can’t get your mind around it…and you go home wondering what in the
world just happened. That was Peter,
energetic, enthusiastic, ready to leap over tall buildings or fight an army of
soldiers singlehandedly, and often devoid of the ability to connect the dots.
The dots, in this unique event in human history, were
the virgin birth, sinless life, miracles-abounding, prophecy-fulfilling,
laughing, loving, dead-man-raising joy of Jesus, the Christ. But for Peter, Friday afternoon through
Sunday morning were nothing but grief, despair, and agony on me. Peter, the one who could blurt-out the truth,
You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16) heard the women
spout (what he thought was) “nonsense” – but went to the grave anyway, saw
nothing, left the unoccupied tomb and discarded graveclothes, to go home
wondering…Wait….WHAT?
Fast-forward to your life. And mine.
Can we possibly be as obtuse and brain-detached as Peter? I can, and have been…often. (Just ask anyone who knows me well). Has someone ever dropped a big gift in your
hand…and you wonder instead of hugging that neck? Did you ever find something long-lost and
begin to take credit for your good sense to look there? Have you ever seen a sunrise and not thought of
those words…and God said, let there be light?
For You Today
The plastic Easter eggs are packed away. The idea of hitting the beach for one of
those memorable sunrise services won’t begin to surface until snow melts
again. Facebook images of empty tombs
and other seasonal wonderments will fade until after Santa’s next sleigh ride.
Connecting the dots, as Peter failed to do
(again), would mean instead of going back home wondering,
that we celebrate and live in the wonder of the Savior’s
love. What will that look like in your
life?
[1] Title image: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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