The Victory

I have experienced some hard grief in my life. When my mom died, when my sister died and when my dad died are the main times. Before those deaths I hadn't realized how painful, how encompassing, how life-changing grief was. Grief affected my stomach, my chest, my heart, my appetite, my eyes, my thoughts, my responses, my ability to carry out my responsibilities. It was overwhelming and miserable. In remembering back to those deaths, grief still takes me by surprise at times. Not so hard or so thoroughly--but still makes me very sad for a while.

I think about the day of another death--the death of Jesus Christ. We now know the big picture about Christ's death--and His burial and miraculous resurrection--about the meaning and the effectiveness and the promise for the future for all who believe. But at that time the people who surrounded Christ including His disciples, His friends and His followers didn't have much understanding. Some understood parts of the plan. After all, Christ had told Him he would die and then be raised up again. But it's like their eyes were blurry and they couldn't see clearly.

So, Christ died on Thursday or Friday late afternoon. All His followers were broken hearted and extremely disappointed. They were sick with grief. They didn't know how life was going to continue. Many had thought Christ was the King and the Messiah, and now he was dead. There would be no kingdom, no freedom from Roman rule, no more taking care of their need for food. The great provider and teacher and THE Messiah was gone. How would they continue? How could things go back to what they had been before Christ came?

On Sunday morning some of the women went to the tomb where Christ was buried--terrible grief. The stone was gone and so was the body of the Lord. Later some of the disciples came to see if He was really gone. He was and the angel announced, "He is not here. Come see the place where the Lord lay."

I'm sure the light was breaking through the darkess of death and of their minds. Could it be true? It was true. Not only had Christ come back to life, but He would later show Himself to many of His followers.

The words of Scripture say it all? "Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is your victory?" Christ won the victory. He completed the plan of salvation by his death, burial and His glorious, miraculous resurrection! Praise God for our blessed hope in Christ! Let us live our lives as if that was true--IT IS!!

Have a wonderful Easter. Remember what Christ did for us!

Thoughts on the Resurrection

Without the birth, we would have no Jesus. Without the death, we would have no example. Without the resurrection, we would have no salvation. Without Jesus, we would have nothing.

He had to have obedience to begin the process.
He had to have patience to bear the garden and the disciples.
He had to have stamina to bear the beatings.
He had to have commitment to bear the cross.
He had to have love to take all our sins.
He had to have power to rise from the dead.
He had to have a view of the future to appear to the disciples and others.
He had to follow the plan to the end to go to sit on the right hand.
He had to be Jesus. No one else would have done.

"He is not here for He is risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay."

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

Proofs of the Resurrection

1. The two women went to the tomb to anoint the body of Christ. They expected to see Him there, but He was gone.

2. The tomb had been sealed at the burial of Christ, and guards were set around the tomb. The stone was rolled into a groove which made it very difficult to move. However, it had been moved.

3. The disciples did not believe the women when they told them that the tomb was empty. Even though Christ had told them earlier that He would die and be raised up in three days, it was like they had no clue. When they ran to tomb to see if the body was gone, they were shocked and surprised.

4. Christ appeared to His disciples and had Thomas touch His hands to feel the nail holes after the resurrection.

5. In the following days after the resurrection Christ appeared to a group of 500 people.

6.According to Scriptures and tradition, all of the disciples were killed for their faith. If they had been perpetrating a hoax as many have said, would they have carried the hoax through to their deaths?

7. The tomb was empty in spite of guards, seals, and a heavy stone.

8. The grave clothes lay as if a body had disappeared out of them.

9. Scripture says many times that Christ arose.

The truth is the truth. We can believe truth or not. We did not know or see Abraham Lincoln. We can believe the historical documentation about his life or not. We did not see Christ and His resurrection. We can believe the historical documentation about His resurrection or not. And we can believe the truth of Word of God.

Why No Angels?

Something I have pondered lately is the fact that there were so few visible angels at the empty tomb. At Christ's birth there were many angels, and several angels had been involved in several events before the birth. At the actual birth there was a multitude of them praising God. This makes me think that the angels had been aware of this coming event for a long time and had been looking forward to it. It was a wondrous and magnificent thing in their angel existence.

But when the death, burial and resurrection took place, there were very few angels involved, at least ones that could be seen. The birth was absolutely necessary to fulfill Scripture and to accomplish the many aspects of Jesus' life. The death, burial and resurrection also fulfilled Scripture and were accomplished in obedience to the Father, but they also fulfilled God's eternal plan for the saving of mankind. It was not a careless, haphazard plan. It was the plan to bring us to God in the only way possible--the perfect Lamb of God giving His life for fatally flawed humans.

So where were all the angels? Could they not bear to see the Christ, the God of Heaven, give His life on a shameful cross? Maybe they like God the Father had to turn away from Christ as the weight of sin was put on His shoulders. By the time we become aware of the angel at the tomb, the angel's part is almost low key. Or maybe it didn't take a whole heavenly host to announce that Jesus wasn't there anymore because he had risen.

I wish there had been a thousand angels announcing what had been accomplished that day. But God, Who truly is omniscient, executed the events in a different way. Since one angel made a very short announcement about the resurrection, we have to think about it for ourselves. We are not sidetracked by the magnificence of heavenly angels, but instead we are wholly caught up in the words "He is not here for He is risen." Wonderful, amazing, joy-causing, humbling, mystifying. Praise God!