Sunday Reflections
If you are reading through the Bible with Ken and me this year, you know that we are almost into the death and resurrection of Jesus – I love the hope-filled story of the stone rolled away :-). Have you noticed how people try to ‘tame’ His resurrection? They cover it with sentimental images portraying him with his hair parted down the middle, holding a lily, and surrounded by angels and bluebirds. People have gilded the real Savior with so much “dew on the roses” that many have lost touch with the earth-shaking facts of his resurrection.
Only minutes before Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb, this man was stiff, gray, and stone-cold dead. The lifeless corpse then opened its eyes, rose from its grave, and as the stone mysteriously rolled aside, he walked out into the dark, cool night. If this weren’t the Gospel account, we’d think we were reading a scene from a horror novel. No wonder many of the people who first saw the resurrected Christ were frozen with fear – hours earlier, Jesus was a corpse; now, he was alive!
Why do we prefer a romanticized image of the resurrection? For one thing, a sentimental idea of Jesus rising from the dead requires nothing from us. A tame, nostalgic picture requires no conviction or commitment. It lacks power because it lacks truth. So for a moment, brush aside the birds and the lilies and think about the facts: a dead man walked out of his grave. And as he did, this man, alive with God’s glory permeating every fiber of his being, was conquering all the demonic forces of darkness! He was satisfying the wrath and judgment of God and was defeating the last great enemy: death. The resurrection of Jesus became the first fruit of the harvest of the resurrection of all Christians. If you belong to him, you will one day receive a body like his, perfectly suited for the new heavens and the new earth – and this world that we love so much, compared to that one, will be like a candle compared to the sun. All because he arose.
The resurrection message is Mary’s testimony, “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18). The other disciple who reached the tomb first also “saw and believed” (John 20:8). So may I ask: what do you see? Do you see a syrupy, sweet picture of Jesus with cherubs and children… a picture on a Sunday school wall that demands nothing of you? Or do you see the death-defying victorious Christ who defeated sin so that you might have resurrection-power to live a life that pleases him? Today, see the risen Lord, and also see every benefit of the resurrection that is now being poured out on you. See this day as a chance to live a life that honors him.
