Will We On Easter Sunday At The Tomb Be
Surprised?
Good Morning Friends,
All the events of Lent and Holy Week prepare our emotions for Easter. We sing Hosannas on Palm Sunday. We join Jesus and his disciples for the Last Supper at Maundy Thursday services. We have an intimate experience of Jesus and then like Peter have to face the reality of our sin which leads us on Good Friday to experience the even greater darkness that fell over the earth in the reading of the seven last words as Jesus died. Only then, when the reality of Jesus’ death becomes clear are we prepared for the experience of the Resurrection. It is good to know where this is going but I get ahead of myself. Here today during Holy Week we might just discover that the better way to experience Easter is to follow in the way that leads to the cross. The way to experience the Resurrection is to face the reality of death in the stories that lead up to this event that changes all of our personal history. Here we have the test of our own emotions. Will we fear? Will we have joy? Will We On Easter Sunday At The Tomb Be
Surprised?
Scripture: After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Matthew 28:1-10 (NRSV)
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’
1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (NRSV)
Message: The Christian walk during Holy Week is designed to prepare us for what is to come. Here we are to experience a God who created the power of life. Here we are to laugh at the absurdity of a few Roman soldiers armed with swords and spears deterring the God of all of History. Here we are to wrestle with our emotions about the resurrection. Here we are to test the accounts of eyewitnesses. Here we are with all our being hoping to believe that Jesus is alive and that our world has been made different. Here we are prepared to see what the disciples saw, to feel what they felt and to believe in such a powerful way that we too desire to tell others about the risen Christ in us. Here we are to look at life and death in a new way that is forever changed by the reality of the resurrection. Friends, God is preparing us for something much better….something worth sharing…something to change us…to prepare us for a better world. Friends, don’t let the moment pass you by. Friends, accept Jesus as the source and wisdom of your life but also get ready to be surprised…get ready to share.
Pray we serve a risen Savior. Pray we fight the good fight and keep the faith. Pray we are prepared for our own death. Pray that we are freed from the tomb. Pray we never forget that this life is a preparation for the life of the resurrection that proclaims the power of God. Pray we never forget that sin and death have been conquered. Pray not lift up false hope but lift up the power of the glorified Christ. Pray we realize that Holy Week is about how God can rescue us from certain death and how we react in the world after we have been saved physically and spiritually. Pray we confront ourselves with how absolutely useless we are if we do not share the Gospel of our salvation with others. Pray we share our gratefulness and joy at having been saved spiritually as well as physically. Pray we realize that it is a tragedy for believers to live life as a spiritual pauper never sharing the rich love we have received.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 