Our Glorious Resurrection

This week leading up to Easter, my thoughts are on the resurrection.

Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and just recently my husband and I were driving the 134 Freeway through Burbank. It passes an old cemetery called Forest Lawn. It’s a sprawling green hillside that borders the freeway, and as we drove, I looked up on that hillside, and I noticed a backhoe digging out a place for a grave. And it made me think of the time that Ken and I went to that very cemetery, to Forest Lawn – I mean, we’re talking decades ago. We went there with my mother-in-law to purchase our share of a family grave plot. Now, this was not the best way for me to spend a Sunday afternoon, but my mother-in-law had put all this in motion, and she would not finalize the papers until Ken and I actually looked at the plot and gave our approval. And I remember when Ken told me that we’d be doing that on a certain Sunday, I kind of whined, “Oh, come on. Do I have to?” I could think of better things to do with our afternoon. But being the submissive wife, I trekked to Forest Lawn with my husband, I looked at my gravesite located in a section called “Murmuring Pines,” and I listened to the realtor – yep, that’s what they called her; she was a realtor – and she was trying to sell us on this plot, and she kept reminding me that what with my head “here” and my feet “there,” I’d have a grand view of the valley and distant mountains. That’s important, I told her. I also told her that I did not have plans to stay there very long. Ha ha.

While the realtor and my mother-in-law went back to the car to confer over the papers, I looked around at the hundreds of tombstones. It was a sight, I don’t know, I don’t often see nor contemplate. And suddenly, sitting there, it struck me that I was sitting on the exact spot where my body will rise, should I die before Christ comes. And that very thought gave me goosebumps ’cause I imagined 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 where Paul says that “the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, the dead in Christ will rise….” I mean, you read that, but how many of us imagine it? I mean, the fact of it all and how personal it is?! Well, I tell you, sitting on that grassy hillside on top of my grave plot, it did more to ignite the reality of the resurrection inside my heart than hearing scores of sermons or reading the best essays on the subject. The Lord will come down, and with a loud command I will, you will, rise.

Well, this is Easter week when we celebrate that. All because of the glorious resurrection of our Savior, the firstfruits he was, of those of us who trust him and will, like him, one day experience a glorious resurrection. Oh, Jesus, thank you that it’s actually going to happen. And, Jesus, help me to be please prepared for it! And I hope you feel the same this Easter week. Because the resurrection is not something to be spiritualized away. One day actual spirits – yours – will return to actual graves and reunite to rise. Dead men, one day, shall live, hallelujah! Oh friend, we cannot keep such good news to ourselves, and so I hope you’ll join me in sharing that news with those who do not know Jesus this week. Those who have no hope. And I have got a hope-filled pamphlet for you to also share with them called “Evidence for the Resurrection.” I mean, come on, let’s ignite the reality of the resurrection inside their hearts! So get your free copy of “Evidence for the Resurrection” today at joniradio.org. And this Sunday? Let’s celebrate Jesus our Resurrection and Life who, one day, will raise us up and take us home. 

© Joni and Friends