Looking For the Living One
Church Family,
On the very first Easter, more than 2,000 years ago, the disciples were scattered. One week before, they had been celebrating, cheering, and worshiping. This Sunday morning, they were alone, sad, and confused. The joy they had expected and the triumph they had yearned for was gone. Victory was replaced with the overwhelming presence of death. Their Messiah, the light of the world--their God incarnate--was gone.
As the sun rose, there was zero anticipation of change. The day would only be a day of mourning and fear. The most faithful of the women went to the tomb seeking to prepare a dead body. The eleven remaining disciples huddled in their place, unsure what to do next.
Today, for the first time in a long time, the world-wide church wakes up to much the same situation. It is Easter, Resurrection Day, and we are scattered, confused, and do not expect a day filled with triumph. When we should be looking to the heavens in worship of our risen Savior, we mourn our separation and the interruption of our plans.
I wish it were only our inability to gather together that bothered us. Unfortunately, we've discovered in the past weeks that there is much more to our situation than missing church gatherings. Uncertainty with the virus expands into the realms of health and economics. Our own health, safety, and continuing ability to provide for our basic necessities comes into question.
Many have lost jobs, clients, and business opportunities. Our income is being cut. Others have seen their work increase to intense and stressful levels. Many who still have their jobs fear that we could lose them in the days to come.
Health problems unrelated to the virus also continue, with the added stress of strict new hospital and doctor’s office policies. The recent hailstorm threw more chaos into the mix. Our children mourn the loss of their normal lives. They miss their friends and the daily routine of school and recess and play. Parents struggle to comfort and instruct them.
The home-bound fight depression and the increased temptations for quiet, personal, sin. To compound these issues, the same sins, struggles, and family dramas that existed before the epidemic continue with us into the time of isolation.
With this weight upon us, the hope that Easter brings can feel very distant.
Friends, hear me on this: In the same way that the struggles of the first disciples did not diminish the glory of the Resurrection on the very first Easter Sunday, our trials and discouragements do not diminish what we celebrate today.
I have been discouraged this week thinking about our inability to gather to celebrate this day. I have come to expect Easter to look and feel a certain way and to contain certain activities. The truth, however, is clear. The lack of trappings we associate with Easter does not diminish the truth of its glory. The doubt of Jesus’s disciples has never hindered the power of his resurrection, and it will not do so today.
Far too often, we come to God with very low expectations. We have lived through times of trouble and disappointment, we have faced overwhelming odds, and we have lost our ability to expect any display of God’s power. We are not unique in this attitude. Above my desk, I keep a note pinned. It contains these words from Luke 24:5, in both English and Greek:
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
These were the words spoken by the angels to the faithful women at Jesus’s tomb.
I call the women faithful because they went to the tomb with the love of Jesus in their hearts. They pushed passed sorrow and shock to do the honorable thing—to care for Jesus’s body. They looked for Jesus among the dead because they underestimated the power and plan of God. They could not imagine finding a risen Lord.
The angels spoke to them as if the women were confused—as if their journey to the tomb was illogical and out of place. If we approach this Resurrection Day with an attitude of defeat, then we are acting as if the troubles in our lives can overcome the reality of the grace of God. If we do not cling to the powerful reality of the Resurrection, we will be approaching our Lord as if he is still dead—with no expectation that he will ever speak or act again.
I keep those words pinned above my desk as a reminder. Far too often I approach the words of Jesus as if they are the advice of a long-dead wise man—helpful in many ways but powerless to affect real change. When I approach my Lord and my faith in this way, I am “looking for the living among the dead.”
On this special Lord’s Day, as you dedicate yourself to the things of God, I beg you to recognize the power of God. Do not carry your troubles to the tomb, half-expecting a powerless Jesus overcome by the world. Look to the heavens! Jesus is alive!
As the Apostle Paul looked at his life of suffering, he recognized the power of the Resurrected Lord. Read these words from Philippians 3:8–11:
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
Paul faced many trials. His life was full of mourning. And yet, through the haze of suffering, he saw the shining light of Jesus. He saw the power of the resurrection and understood that the same power that raised Christ from the dead would also bring life to those that followed him.
Brothers and sisters, use this day to worship Jesus. I ask you to set aside time this morning reflecting on these thoughts that I have shared.
Take your troubles to Jesus. There is no circumstance that you face from which he will shy away. There is no sin that you have committed that he cannot forgive. You worship a God who has defeated death. Embrace him! Repent to him! Seek him! One day you will join him in glory.
Yours in the Love of Christ,
Tony Boes, Pastor