By Michael Julian
Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Kenton
Focal Passage: John 20:3-9,19-23,27-29
Happy Resurrection Day! Doesn’t it feel good to say those words of truth and reality? That the stone was rolled away, not so Jesus could escape, but that we should be let in to see the empty tomb. A crucified Jesus. An empty tomb. A risen Savior. Hallelujah!
Let us reason together over these events. The fear, pain, and confusion of crucifixion Friday still hovers above the followers of Jesus. Hopes have been dashed against the rocks.
Potential deliverance from Rome slips into quiet nothingness. Then the uneasiness and silence of Saturday takes hold. A day of rest and peace is haunted by cries and screams and images locked into many consciences. Sunday is on its way, but no one seems to be truly prepared for what they will discover on this auspicious day.
John 20:3-9: Our entry point here follows Mary Magdalene fleeing from the empty tomb. She runs to Peter and John to inform them of this troubling development.
Though Jesus had instructed His followers He would rise again from the dead, no one was there to wait for Jesus to emerge from the grave.
But, let us not miss the enormity of what they discovered. The tomb is empty! This is unparalleled in human history. Jesus had raised Lazarus, but he emerged from the tomb still covered in his wrappings.
Julian
Jesus’ wrappings were simply lying there and His face coverings were rolled up in a separate place. Folks, the world needs to see and hear that Jesus is alive. These are credible and verifiable eyewitness accounts. Robbers would not have fooled with the wrappings. Neither would they have been able to overpower the guards. The truth is evident. Jesus is alive, never to die again.
John 20:19-23: As if that testimony was not conclusive enough, Jesus proved that He was alive when He appeared to His disciples that very night. He entered the locked room with a greeting of peace. You can almost see the pain of Friday, the silence of Saturday, and the unexpectedness of Sunday melt away from the disciples’ confused hearts. They began to rejoice greatly in His presence.
Now, Jesus would begin to prepare them for His mission. They were comforted and challenged. The Father had sent Jesus into the world, and now Jesus was sending His disciples into a pagan world devoid of the knowledge of God and His Messiah.
John 20:27-29: That night, however, one was missing. Thomas. He wanted the same visible proof, and Jesus did not disappoint. It led to one of the great declarations in all of Scripture, “My Lord and my God!”
Take comfort that the Lord overcomes all our fears and doubts when we believe in Him. Because of Jesus’ resurrection, new life is now possible. Looking deeper, we must also understand that the resurrection is not just an event, but the resurrection is a person.
Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection and the life.” If you have new life in Christ, rejoice and join in the Lord’s mission to the world. If you do not have new life in Christ, believe in the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection so that you may joyfully assert, “My Lord and my God!” B&R — Julian is pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church, Kenton.
