Saturday, April 23, 2011

He Is Risen!


How does one go about writing about how the celebration of the greatest event in human history has effected their life?  How does one put into words the feeling of utter gratification and thanksgiving that one feels in their heart for the sacrifice that led to this event?  What are the words that one can use to inspire others to think not of themselves, but of the countless souls who have been saved as a result of this miraculous and amazing sacrificial offering and subsequent victory over sin and death?

That is the task that I have set forth on in these few brief paragraphs.  The first thing that comes to mind is who do I think I am!  For centuries, scholars and saints have attempted to describe just what the events of that first Easter meant to them and the world.  Some lived out the joy of the Resurrection.  Some wrote endlessly about this ultimate gift of love.  And still, nothing that anyone has ever recorded will ever touch the complete depths of the meaning of this holiday that has been rendered by this secular society to the realm of insignificant.

Without the Resurrection and the sacrifice upon the Cross, we would have no meaning to our lives.  Life would be bland and pointless.  Hope would be non-existent.  We would have nothing to look forward to in this mundane life if it weren't for a loving God who allowed His Son to become the sacrificial offering that was so necessary for our salvation.

Imagine, if you will, the time between the death of Jesus and His glorious Resurrection from the point of view of the Apostles.  These eleven men had witnessed their Lord and Master go from one who was exulted only days before upon His entry into Jerusalem to the ignominy of a brutal and humiliating death upon a Roman cross.  They were wanted men, or so they thought.  The man that they had placed all their loyalty, all of their trust in was now gone.  The future seemed bleak.

Now, on this first morning of the week, word comes through Mary Magdalene that she has seen the Risen Master and not only that, but that He has a message for His followers.  The message is that He had risen and was going ahead of them into Galilee.  Put yourself in the place of one of those men who thought that they were about to lose their lives much in the same way they had seen their Master die.  What would you have thought?  What kind of a struggle would this have been within yourself?  None of it could have possibly seemed real.  Yet, in all of history, there had never been, nor would there ever be, a greater truth than this, the Resurrection of the Lord!

That is the challenge of this miraculous celebration.  We must make the Resurrection real in our lives in any way that we can.  We must learn to shake off all forms of doubt and despair because there is no room for these in the Resurrection.  We must become a people of true hope, a hope based upon a solid foundation of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Never did Jesus ever say or promise anything that went unfulfilled.  And this is especially true of the Resurrection.

Jesus Christ is indeed Risen this day!  Death has no power over mankind because it has been defeated by the Risen Lord.  Because of His Resurrection, Jesus has once again gain control over all of God's marvelous creation.  We are no longer a Good Friday People, people mired in the hopelessness and darkness of sin.  We are a Resurrection People, basking in the love of God and the sacrifice of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for each one of us.  Through this ultimate act of love for man, God bestows upon us His peace and affection.  We are now to simply follow in the Lord's footsteps and that peace shall be with us through the rest of our lives.

Peace be with you!