This week I am sharing a daily devotional each morning that I originally wrote for Lifeway’s “Open Windows” devotional guide. I hope you are encouraged in your faith by these short meditations!
1 Corinthians 15:8, “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”
The other day I came across some pictures of my daughter when she was about 6 years old, and I found myself wishing that I could hear her little girl voice and see her play dress-up again. We all have times when we wish we could relive something, stepping back in time.
Yet at other times, we wish we could roll back the clock to undo something we have done. If only we could not do that sinful action that hurt so many we care about.
The apostle Paul likely wished for both at times. On the one hand, he wished he could roll back the clock and be there when Jesus appeared to the other apostles. Yet he also wished that he could go back in time and not persecute the church. But neither was possible. And neither was needed. Paul knew he couldn’t time travel to be one of the Twelve who walked with Jesus. He also knew he couldn’t change his actions of persecuting the church before knowing Jesus. Yet the words of 1 Corinthians 15:8, in the context of the great resurrection chapter, give us hope.
The cross and resurrection don’t change the past, but they do change today and our forever. Because of the gospel, I can move forward in hope.
Father, I glorify You. Your gospel gives me forgiveness for my past and new mercies for today and tomorrow.
Over the next week, I will be sharing a daily devotional that I originally wrote for Lifeway’s “Open Windows” devotional guide. I hope you are encouraged in your faith by these short meditations!
Matthew 28:10, “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.'”
“Do not be afraid.” These are words that we see often in the Gospels. Jesus said this phrase to His disciples so many times that they must have grown to expect to hear it whenever something terrifying happened or whenever they saw His glory.
But the most enduring time that Jesus said, “Do not be afraid,” was when He said it as the resurrected Lord. The resurrection had truly changed everything, including fear. His “do not be afraid” refrain spoken to the women at the tomb that first Easter morning echoes down to us today.
No matter what it is that is causing fear in your life, the resurrection speaks hope into that situation. It reminds us that we have a risen King reigning in heaven today who cares for us in our trials. It reminds us that our final enemy, death, has become our servant that will take us into the presence of our King and into eternal joyful fellowship with the saints who have gone before us.
Truly the resurrection decimates fear. Be encouraged by the words of Jesus: “Do not be afraid.” Trust in God’s plan.
Father, thank You for these fear-destroying words from Jesus that change everything.
Over the next week, I will be sharing a daily devotional that I originally wrote for Lifeway’s “Open Windows” devotional guide. I hope you are encouraged in your faith by these short meditations!
Acts 2:32, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.”
For some, the Monday morning after Easter can bring mixed emotions. Some may wake up with resurrection songs in their hearts. But others wake up with a bit of a low after the high of Easter morning. Back to work. Back to the doctor. Back to the same relationship problems.
However, Jesus is not only risen on Easter. He is still risen today. And that makes all of the difference in the world.
In Peter’s Pentecost sermon in Acts 2, he pointed to the confirming miracles and signs his hearers knew about. He also quoted King David’s prophecies about the Christ in Psalm 16 that Jesus fulfilled.
But the greatest proof of Jesus as Savior was that those Peter preached to had either seen Jesus raised to life or knew people who had seen Jesus alive after the resurrection. Peter didn’t hesitate to proclaim to thousands, “we all are witnesses” of Jesus’ resurrection.
The grave could not hold the Savior. Jesus had died, but as the prophecies and many eyes confirmed, He was alive again. Keep that in mind on this Monday morning.
Christ is still risen. He is still risen indeed!
Father, help me to rejoice in and believe in the resurrection of Your Son, today and every day.
I am a pastor. And I do not have the gift of evangelism.
However, I do want to be obedient to Jesus. I believe that all need to hear the Gospel. Because of this, I evangelize and continually want to grow in leading my church in corporate and personal evangelism.
I have embraced the idea that not all are “naturally gifted evangelists.” Not all pastors have the gifting of Billy Graham, Ray Comfort, or Greg Laurie. The gifts God seems to have given me are encouragement, preaching, and teaching. But embracing how God has “wired me” for the places He has called me to serve does not mean I forget about other clear commands.
I may not have the “gift” of giving (Romans 12:6-8), but it would be sinful not to give to my local church. I would also miss out on being a part of how God provides for our ministries, the joy of sacrificing for the Kingdom, and the wonder of seeing God supply every need.
Similarly, I may not have a natural bent toward evangelism, but as I have leaned into God’s heart for those who don’t know him, I have grown in my passion and practice of evangelism. I have a burning desire to “compel people to come in” (Luke 14:23), even if I sometimes need to rekindle that desire. No blazing biblical truth has compelled my evangelism more than the resurrection of Jesus. Here are five reasons the resurrection compels me to evangelize.
1. The resurrection means that I am a co-worker with Jesus in evangelism
In the first verse of the book of Acts, Luke the Physician says that in his Gospel, he wrote about “all that Jesus began to do and teach…” The implication at the start of the Bible book that details the spread of the Gospel around the world after the resurrection is that Jesus was starting to build his church (Matthew 16:18). He is continuing to save today.
When we share the Gospel, we are co-workers with the living and reigning Christ. What a privilege!
2. The resurrection means every person in our community needs to hear the Gospel
Jesus said that one day, every person you drive past in your community, every person you see in the grocery store, every person who walks into your church, and every person who never steps foot in a church—will one day hear his voice. “…an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28-29)
C.S. Lewis famously explained this in The Weight of Glory: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
There are no ordinary people. Every person you meet in your community will one day be eternally in heaven or hell. When I read the Bible, I am amazed at how straightforward it presents this reality, when even in the church, sometimes we are more reserved about this truth than we should be. The facts of judgment and salvation, the facts of resurrection to life or resurrection to judgment, bring a weight to our task and a purpose to our church and ministry. Until we are in heaven and can no longer evangelize, the resurrection means we must.
3. The resurrection means there is a never-empty well of passion for evangelism
Sometimes, I get tired of resistance to the Gospel and give up for a while. Sometimes, I don’t feel the weight of eternity. Sometimes, I am scared of what others will think of me. But believing in the resurrection means I can always find the passion for evangelism again.
We see Peter go from being the timid man cowering at a servant girl’s accusation on the night of Jesus’ arrest to the bold apostle preaching to thousands after Jesus rose from the dead. I have seen fear turn into love and boldness in my heart when given an opportunity to share the Gospel if I remember that Jesus is alive.
4. The resurrection means I want to do outreach and evangelism privately and with my church family
I labor to explain at least the basics of the Gospel at some point in each sermon. I do this to train my congregation week after week in the different ways they can explain the Gospel. But I also do it because I never know who will be there on a Sunday or where they are with the Lord. Even if no visitors attend on a given Sunday, there may be unbelieving church regulars, teens, or children who will be saved that morning. The fact that the church service is primarily for building up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12) does not mean evangelism is not also a primary purpose.
But the resurrection also means we don’t just wait for people to come to us. I love reaching out to anyone in our community we can touch base with through sports camp outreaches, kids’ Christmas parties, block parties, or by hosting a tent in our community StreetFest. While there is a distinction between outreach (letting people know you are there and that you care) and evangelism (sharing the Gospel through a verbal or written presentation), outreach often opens doors to evangelism in our culture today.
The fact that your church exists in your community expresses the love of Christ for your community. They have the Gospel available because God has seen fit to have your church’s gospel presence embedded in the community. Sometimes, the Gospel will advance through shared ministry; other times, church members go out to their spheres of influence with the good news.
5. The resurrection means that our work of evangelism is never in vain
The longest chapter in the Bible on the resurrection ends with an astounding promise. 1 Corinthians 15:58 comes after proving, defending, and applying the truth of the resurrection. In light of this, the Apostle Paul encourages us, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” So, we continue to plant seeds.
Years ago, our church hired a contractor who was not attending church. Several people in our church knew him, and they encouraged us to pray for him at our Prayer Meeting. I, and others, invited him to church, but he never came. Until last month. At the end of our worship services, I always invite people to talk with us after the service if they want to know more about the Gospel or set up a time with us if they are not ready that morning. Last Sunday, he approached me to set up a time to talk more about Jesus.
These amazing opportunities used to intimidate me. I was eager but scared. As my convictions about the resurrection of Christ have deepened, so has my love for evangelism. I can’t wait to see what Jesus will do in our community member’s life.
Keep sharing the Gospel. Because of the resurrection, “your labor is not in vain.”
The scene was all too familiar. Wailing pierced the air. A procession went through the village, holding the young body on a homemade stretcher. Some tore their mourning clothes. Others had a faint cloud of ashes near their head as they walked, remnants of the small pile of ashes they had put on top of their hair as a sign of mourning to identify with their destitute friend. How would she survive?
First her husband had died, and now her only child was gone, her son who had been her hope of financial stability. But she wasn’t concerned about money right now. She looked over at the lifeless body being paraded through town on the way to the burial place, and she let out another mournful, guttural cry deep from within her, the cry of despair that only a mother who has lost her child can feel.
What Jesus did for this young man and widow is a preview of what he will do one day for all of us who have believing loved ones who have died before us: one day Jesus will give us to each other again.
But then Jesus appeared on the scene. She was glad to see him. She had heard he was kind. She had heard that he could heal. But it was too late. Her son was dead.
She didn’t know that Jesus can turn funerals into parties.
Then he stopped the procession. He spoke to her, “Do not weep.” And then he spoke to her son–her dead son. “Young man, I say to you, arise.”
When Luke the physician wrote his Gospel, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he chose this phrase to describe what happened next: “And the dead man sat up and began to speak…” (Luke 7:15a) The Savior spoke to the dead man. And the dead man began to speak. The young man was no longer dead and he could speak because the giver of life had spoken to him.
Just imagine the reaction of the crowd! Jesus had stopped a funeral, spoken the word, and they had watched a dead man sit up. But our tender Savior was not done yet. “Jesus gave him to his mother.” (Luke 7:15b)
What Jesus did for this young man and widow is a preview of what he will do one day for all of us who have believing loved ones who have died before us: one day Jesus will give us to each other again. On that day Jesus stopped one funeral procession, but on THAT day Jesus will stop all funerals! Jesus has the voice that raises the dead.
There are five times that Jesus’s voice raises the dead in the Bible. I will be included in one of them and so will you (John 5:24-29). Each time before our resurrection day was simply a preview of what is to come. The question is, will you be part of the resurrection of life or the resurrection of judgment? The question is, have your sins been paid for by he who is the resurrection and the life?
The second time that Jesus’s voice raised the dead comes in the very next chapter of Luke. In Luke 8 Jairus, the synagogue ruler, has given up all hope except for Jesus intervening. He fell at Jesus’s feet and begged him to come heal his young daughter. Jesus said he would, but then a woman who needed to be healed of her bleeding touched Jesus’s robe. Jesus–the ambulance at this point–stopped. The woman who had suffered for 12 years seemed to take precedence over the girl who it seemed would only live for 12 years. Hadn’t Jesus heard of triage? But Jesus spoke to the woman who had touched his robe, comforted her, and grew her faith. Then the dreaded announcement came: a messenger from Jairus’s house said he could stop troubling the Teacher. His little girl was dead.
But Jesus replied, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” (Luke 8:50) When they arrived at his house, the scene was chaotic to say the least. A little girl had just died. But Jesus sent everyone out of the house except for Peter, John, James, and Jairus and his wife. Jesus took her by the hand as if he were gently waking her up in the morning. And then he spoke: “Child, arise.”
Before Christ spoke to her, there had been laughing. But it was the laughing of the mourners at the thought that Jesus would awaken her from death like a little girl is awakened from a drowsy Sunday afternoon nap. Now the laughing came from her room as her father and mother and undoubtedly Peter and James and John rejoiced in what Jesus had done–with his voice. Jesus has the voice that raises the dead.
The third time that Jesus’s voice raised the dead, he is standing outside of Lazarus’s tomb. His sisters are standing next to him, with tear-stained cheeks and quivers in their voices: does the stone really need to be rolled away? Doesn’t the Lord know that there will be the stench of death coming out of that tomb? But every time Jesus goes toe-to-toe with death, he wins. Lazarus will soon be washing off the smell of death with his own two hands to put on clean clothes and eat a feast with his loved ones and his Savior.
I used to think that it was just something that preachers said to have us feel emotion when they claimed that if Jesus had not said, “Lazarus” when he cried, “Lazarus, come out,” (John 11:43) that everyone would have come out of their graves. But I now see that this is nothing other than gospel truth: this is Jesus’s voice. And Jesus has the voice that raises the dead.
The fourth time that Jesus’s voice raises the dead is easy to miss. When Jesus gives up his spirit, right before he dies, he cries out with a loud voice, “It is finished!” (Matthew 27:50, see also John 19:30). We are well acquainted with what happens in the next verse in Matthew: the curtain of the temple is torn in two, and the earth shakes and the rocks split. But two verses after we read of Jesus crying out that his saving work is done, people are raised from the dead. The voice of the creator in human flesh declared that His atoning work for our sin was done, and some who were believers rose from the dead.
They are raised to life at the voice of Jesus announcing his triumph over the penalty of sin. But they don’t come into Jerusalem and appear to many until after Jesus himself has risen from the dead (Matthew 27:53). It’s as if they are deferring to the One whose voice raised them from the dead.
The fifth time Jesus’s voice raises the dead has yet to happen. It is the day Christ himself promises will come. Jesus tells those listening to him in John 5 to not be amazed that the Father has given him the authority to judge. For an even greater act of power will be shown on that great day of judgment: “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28-29)
Which resurrection will you be part of? There is a day that you will hear Jesus’s voice telling you to get up. Like to the young man and to the little girl, he will tell you to arise as if you are simply waking up from a long nap. If you are trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and eternal life, at the moment that your soul is joined to your resurrection body, a miracle will happen for you much like the young man, the little girl, Lazarus, and the saints in Jerusalem who were raised.
The first words that your resurrected ears will hear are Jesus saying to you something like, arise–come out of that grave! And you will obey with joy at the voice of the giver of life–and you will live, never to die again.
We are living in a time in which we are desperate for good news. We are all reading this hunkered down in our homes under the looming specter of disaster. We feel the state of emergency, and we see it with our eyes. It is on the signs on every business door and on faces everywhere we look. The mood has changed in our community, as friends or neighbors who might happen to see each other outside now talk from a distance. Anyone who dares to venture out to buy groceries notices the absence of the laughter of children. We worry about our elderly relatives and neighbors, even as we try to help them, all the while hoping we are not putting them at greater risk. We wince when we check the latest statistics on confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths. We wonder how long this will go on. Oh, how desperately we need good news.
Just when we think the low-grade stress of trying to hide from an invisible enemy is getting unbearable, we hear of another cancellation of an event we had looked forward to for months. We know it is the right thing to do, and we might even feel guilty for wishing it wasn’t so, but we mourn our old lives nonetheless. As a parent, I am joining moms and dads all across the world who have to explain to their kids why their favorite spring activities are canceled.
But as a pastor, I am joining pastors all across the world explaining to their congregations that Easter is not canceled.
No, we are not physically meeting. But Easter is not canceled because Easter was made to bring good news to a world that groans under the strain of more bad news. Easter was made for a time like this.
Jesus’ disciples were crushed after Jesus’ death on the cross. They were confused. But when the report of the empty tomb reached them, and when Jesus himself stood in front of them again so much alive that they could touch him and watch him eat, his earlier words flooded back. Right before he had raised Lazarus from the dead they had heard him proclaim, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) Now they understood that Jesus’ resurrection was the guarantee of their resurrection. It sealed his promise of eternal life for those who would believe in him.
Some say the resurrection is a time of celebration of new life, as if it is nothing more than a celebration of Spring. Certainly the fact that it took place during a time of new life on earth is bursting with meaning. But if that is all it means, Easter is hollow. We need something more substantial. We need a resurrection.
As our church joins churches around the world during this historic Easter, celebrating the resurrection for the first time virtually and not physically gathered, our joy will be no less. We will wish it was different. We may shed tears of loss and heartbreak. But we will celebrate Jesus’ resurrection with joy because we know that in his conquering of death, he has promised to make all things new. The Bible looks forward to a day when fear and abuse and hunger and loneliness and viruses will all die, never to raise their ugly heads again. And in their demise, a new heaven and a new earth will be created, a place that believers in King Jesus were made to live in with their resurrection bodies.
This is good news. This is why Easter was made for a time like this. And because of Easter, because of Jesus, I invite you to make this best of news your news.
Just over three months ago, my family and I were wondering if we would get our first white Christmas after three years in Vermont. As I write this today, we have 18 inches of snow on the ground and my kids are amazed by the mountains of snow on the edges of the church parking lot. There is no doubt that cabin fever has set in, as the prospect of snow on the ground for Easter is looking more likely each day. Yet I have begun to hear what I have come to expect from the resilient people of Manchester and the mountains: “Another storm next week, but spring is coming.” This is always said with a twinkle in the eyes, a twinkle of hope. There is snow on the ground now, but the peas will be planted in the ground before too long. That’s just how it is some years.
I can’t help but see a faint shadow of resurrection hope in our sure hope for the arrival of spring. The reason that Christians get so excited about Easter is because we need to be reminded that although we live in brokenness now, resurrection is coming. It’s the same attitude that can say with snow on the ground, “Another storm next week, but spring is coming.” Easter is the reason that Christians can face difficult things with a twinkle in our eyes, “Another diagnosis of cancer, but resurrection is coming.” The reason we can be resolute in our faith when life is hard is exactly because of the resurrection.
Sometimes even Christians forget how crucial the resurrection is to our faith. We need Easter to remind us that the resurrection is promised, and it matters. The Apostle Paul explained this in the Bible, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Paul doesn’t say that if the resurrection is not true then at least Christians are bringing some good into the world, so keep doing what you’re doing. No, he says if the resurrection is not true, let’s pack it up. Let’s close our doors. But then six verses later he exclaims, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead…”
I experienced the weight of the resurrection a few years ago as I stood with a 17 year old at a headstone. We had just had coffee. I was checking in on him one on one because his mother had passed away a couple of months earlier. As we sipped the last remains of our Frappuccinos, he surprised me by asking, “Do you want to go with me to my mom’s grave?” When we arrived at the cemetery, there was grass from the lawn mowers strewn across the headstone, so I watched as he bent down and gently cleaned off her name. We stood in silence for a few moments, talked about her for a few minutes, and then I prayed with him, thanking God that because of Jesus’ resurrection he would see her again.
So you will have to excuse us if we get excited about Easter. You would be excited too if you believed that you would be raised from the dead. Easter means so much more to us than a change in the weather, or a poetic metaphor of new life. Spring weather and metaphors of new life have their place, but we know that they won’t give us the rock solid hope that we need when we stand in front of the grave of a loved one. We have something better to celebrate, which is the resurrection of our savior Jesus–and we know that his resurrection means that we have the hope of resurrection.
Just before he raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus comforted Lazarus’ grief-stricken sister Martha with words that no mere man has ever been able to repeat, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). Then he asked her the key question, “Do you believe this?” Christians get excited about Easter because we do believe this, and Easter reminds us that as surely as the snow will melt into spring, resurrection is coming.
I am a pastor in New England, and let me tell you–there is a reason people come from all over the country to see the Fall foliage. Here in New England, we call them “leaf peepers.” During peak leaf season, our sleepy tourist town of 5,000 goes into traffic-jam mode on the weekends. And with good reason. In our part of Vermont, we are surrounded by the Green Mountains on either side of the large valley we live in. When Fall really hits, there are a couple of weeks when the Green Mountains become the Orange, Red, and Gold Mountains.
We are currently easing into leaf season. There are bright bursts of brilliant crimson and orange on certain trees, but there is still plenty of green foliage that will have the chlorophyll leaving soon. Many leaves, however, are already floating to the ground. When a leaf falls to the ground, it is dead. The beauty of Fall foliage is death.
The Beauty of Christian Death As I have watched the breathtaking hues begin to appear this Fall, I keep thinking about the fact that sometimes death is beautiful. In fact, for those who belong to Jesus, for those who are “in Christ,” death is always beautiful. “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15). If the LORD calls the death of those he has saved “precious in his sight,” then it is beautiful.
I am a pastor. I am not naively saying that the death of those who are in Christ is without sorrow, or always happens painlessly in our sleep. Just this week I visited a member in a hospice home, suffering under the ravages of Alzheimer’s. I have sat and cried with spouses and children moments after their loved one has departed this earth, sometimes after a terrible battle with death. I have visited church members in the hospital who are in excruciating pain days before their death. Accidents happen to saints and sinners alike. Cancer can visit us all. The Apostle Paul calls death the “last enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:26).
No, I am not talking about Christian death being beautiful because it is somehow less physically painful or less final on this side of eternity than non-Christian death. I am talking about Christian death being beautiful because the gospel gives us God’s perspective on even our final enemy, death.
Going Home–The Joy of Jesus’ Presence Last night in Prayer Meeting we sang, “When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.” Great gospel truths like this one from “How Great Thou Art” can become white noise to us if we don’t stop and think about the wonder of death being the door through which we are usually “taken home.” In 2 Corinthians 5:8 Paul reminds us of the joy of Jesus’ presence that awaits us by exclaiming, “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” Death for the Christian is beautiful because it brings us to the place we were made for. We are only pilgrims now. We will finally be home with the Lord either when Jesus returns, or on the day that we die. This is why there is beauty in Christian death.
But there’s more. Four verses earlier in 2 Corinthians 5 we are told why the day of our death is the day of our greatest joy: “…so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:4). We think that we are really living life here and that one day we will die, but one reason that the death of the LORD’s saints is precious in his sight is because he knows that our death day is the day that we pass from mortality to life. The beauty in Christian death is that it is when we begin to really live, with the One we were made to live with, our Savior–not to mention saved family and friends who will meet us there. In Jesus, it is not death to die. This is why King David can sing, “in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). It’s like arriving home to the family you love after a long trip–only a billion times better.
The Beauty of Fall and The Hope of Resurrection
Every time that I officiate a Memorial Service for a believer in Jesus, I feed my soul on 1 Corinthians 15 in the days leading up to the service. We need to weep as Jesus wept. We need to feel that death is so final on this side of eternity. But we need to remember that for the Christian, their death day was the most beautiful day they ever experienced.
And there is coming a day when Jesus will reveal that beauty to all of us. For on the day that he returns, the resurrection body given to each believer will be imperishable, glorious, and powerful (1 Corinthians 15:42-43)! “We shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
The beauty in Christian death is hard to see sometimes. Winter can be long and bleak. After the leaves fall, our trees will be barren here for over 6 months.
But lift your heads, brothers and sisters, because Spring follows Winter. It may be Fall now, but Spring time–and Resurrection Morning–is coming.
Hindsight is always 20/20. Over 2,000 years ago the pressing question for a group of Jesus-worshiping ladies Sunday morning was, “Who will roll away the stone for us?” (Mark 16:3) It was a great question. They wanted to anoint Jesus with spices to show honor and respect to Him but they didn’t know how they were going to get to Him.
If you have ever seen a rolling stone tomb from the first century (picture to the left), you can immediately feel their anxiety. Joseph of Arimathea had rolled the “great stone” to the entrance of the tomb (Matt. 27:60), and they had watched him do it (Matt. 27:61). The flat stone blocking the entrance would have been on a sort of rough “track” so it could be rolled back and forth as needed, as most of these expensive tombs would have entire families buried there. But it was a large stone–probably even with a mechanism to make it harder to open than it was to close, as was common–and these women, going alone early in the morning, were not sure they could budge it.
However, there was an even more daunting problem that they may have been unaware of. On the Sabbath, the day after Jesus had died and was buried, chief priests and Pharisees had received permission from Pilate to use Roman soldiers to not only guard the tomb, but also to seal it (Matt. 27:66).
The religious leaders were concerned with somebody stealing the body and lying that Jesus had risen. Those leaders were preoccupied with somebody going into the tomb, when they should have been preoccupied with Somebody coming out.
Meanwhile, for the women the question remained as they walked there together that morning: “Who will roll away the stone for us?” But then it happened. There was a great earthquake. An angel of the Lord descended from heaven and rolled back the stone for them–and us–to see that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead! This rolling away of the stone was so powerful and dramatic, and the appearance of the angel was so radiant, that the soldiers commissioned with guarding the tomb fainted (Matt. 28:3-4).
Large stones are heavy. Guarded, sealed tombs are impenetrable. But they can’t contain the risen Christ!
If you will allow me to help you apply this without being overly metaphorical, what is the stone in your heart right now? What is it that is getting in the way of your saving belief in the risen Christ? Assuming that you know Him as your Savior and Lord, what is it that is currently getting in the way of you living like your King truly is the risen and reigning Jesus? Ask the Holy Spirit right now to help you see past the large stone and into the empty tomb. For Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!
One of the things that I love about Jesus are the truthful paradoxes that I see in Him as I read the Gospels. He is full of grace, yet truth. He is fully God, yet fully man. He is gentle, yet bold. He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, yet He is the Lamb of God.
Jesus’ closest disciples got a front-row seat to another seeming paradox the night that He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is one of my favorite accounts in Jesus’ Passion Week because it reminds us of Jesus’ humility and submission to the Father’s will as an obedient man, yet of His sovereignty and power as God (I have posted more extensively about John 18:3-6 here).
The beloved Apostle, moved by the Holy Spirit, remembered that night: “So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to Him, came forward and said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’ They answered Him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am He.’ Judas, who betrayed Him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, ‘I am He,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.” (John 18:3-6)
Judas showed up to betray Jesus with a kiss, by bringing a “cohort” of Roman soldiers along with officers, chief priests, and Pharisees. They had lanterns, torches, and weapons including clubs–and no doubt the regular weapons that Roman soldiers would carry. These were not only angry religious leaders who were boldly breathing murder, these were also highly trained soldiers in an army that had battled the most powerful armies on earth and won.
But when Jesus spoke a word–when Jesus said His Name, the Name of God, “I am”–hundreds of skilled soldiers and fuming Pharisees fell to the ground.
Jesus didn’t exclaim, “See? I am God’s Son! I am the Messiah! I just knocked you to the ground with my all-powerful voice, the same voice that created the world!” Jesus was on a rescue mission. He had just begged His omnipotent Father to remove the cup from Him. To not place the sin of the world upon Him, to not be separated from His Father for the first and only time in all of eternity, to not be beaten and placed on the cross as an innocent man who would experience Hell in a sense for three hours. The Father had said no, and the Son had said yes. Jesus had declared through sweat drops of blood, “…not my will, but yours, be done.” Nothing would deter Jesus from redeeming His people. He would allow Himself to be arrested and the chain of events that He could already see to begin (John 18:4).
Jesus effortlessly knocked hundreds to the ground with His voice, reminding them and us of His power, but then moments later He humbly allowed them to arrest Him, reminding them and us of His saving purpose.
As we approach Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday, will you gaze at Jesus with me? Oh, that we would not have hard hearts and go through the motions during another Easter season! The soldiers and religious leaders that night not only saw Jesus’ power, they felt it like cold hard ground. But their hearts didn’t melt before the King. Oh Jesus, just as You later saved some of those same religious leaders and soldiers, warm our hearts to You, and help us to see You for who You really are!
This article appeared in 
He Must Become Greater 