The Resurrected Resurrector

"Talitha koum!" ("Little girl, I say to you, get up!" – Mark 5:41), Jesus said to the twelve-year-old dead girl, before giving her back to her Mom and Dad alive and well. They had laughed at him before going into her room because he said, “She is merely sleeping,” but they knew she was dead.

"Young man, I say to you, get up!" (Luke 7:14), Jesus said to the widow’s dead son as those who were carrying out to bury him watched him sit up and start talking. Fear and praising God was the funeral procession’s reaction.

"Lazarus, come out!" (John 11:43), Jesus shouted towards Lazarus’ opened tomb before the crowd saw man buried four days ago walk out dressed in burial wrappings. “But by now it will stink,” his sister warned before they rolled away the entrance stone.

Resurrection, hard to wrap your mind around it. It is not difficult to understand those who laugh at the notion because seen too many little caskets occupied by dead little boys and girls. Resurrection, easy to dismiss it as mere religious talk, sentimentalism, and cheap comfort because we have not seen the one riding in the back of the hearse join the wake, turning it from a mourning fellowship into a praising God party.Resurrection, rings unscientific, flies in the face of what we know about our natural world. We are familiar with the stench of death, telling us of irreversible decay, no one gets up from that, religious or not.When they laid Jesus’ dead body in the tomb there was no one to touch him, speak life-giving words, call him out, no mighty prophet, none of his followers, and certainly not his enemies. But he did rise, not as the three above who needed someone with power greater than death to restore their lives.

Jesus, the creator of all life (Colossians 1:13-19), the one who has life within himself (John 2:19-22; John 10:17-18), free from life-robbing and damning sin (2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15), rose by his own divine power. And, Jesus Christ did not rise like the three above, merely restored to physical life and destined to die again, no, he resurrected to incorruptible, eternal life.

“Jesus told her (Martha, Lazarus’ sister), ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she told him. ‘I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God’” (John 11:25-27, NLT2, parenthesis mine).

This Easter 2020 we will remember as the Coronavirus Easter with daily updates of total infections and deaths, and all of us very aware of our fragility and inescapable mortality. Ultimately no vaccine, no ventilator, no medical breakthrough will be able to rescue us from death, accountability before God, and eternal damnation. For that you and I need the power of the one who is the resurrection and the life, Jesus Christ.You and I have to decide whether to laugh him off, settle for a little religion every now and then, inform him of the impossibilities and scientific facts, or believe and trust him who alone conquered the grave, who is the resurrection and the life. So, what is your Easter, Jesus risen from the dead, reaction and response? Oh, that you will believe.

“And now, dear brothers and sisters (those who believe in, follow, and live for Jesus Christ), we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NLT2, parenthesis mine). 

Have a blessed Easter.
Love you, Pastor Hans    

Empty (Easter)

March 24 2011

 

Empty gas tank – bummer.

Empty wallet – what the heck?

Empty bank account – time to worry, pray, or both.

Empty refrigerator – not so good at all.

Empty ice cream carton – who ate it all?

Empty house – loneliness.

Empty look – trouble.

Empty tomb – incredible, best news ever!

Generally speaking we are not that fond of “empty,” we’d much prefer full. The
biggest exception of them all is our own grave, we love for it to stay empty. Have
you ever considered how hard we work at that being so? Of course we love being
full so much that most of the time we are completely focused on it until someone
tells us our fullness will shorten our lives. We also love for our lives to be full,
in part because we know that we won’t be able to keep our own tomb empty
forever, and because we know that once we are in our own grave we are totally
powerless. Death strips us of everything. There is no hope in death – unless.

Unless – there is someone who has conquered both death and sin. The two are
related, you know. Death (physical, spiritual, and eternal) is the result of sin, yours
and mine (Romans 6:23). And since we already know that neither of us can stave
off forever the appointment with our own grave we are indicted as sinners. Our
capacity to sin never is on “empty,” and this is why our death and God’s judgment
is merely a matter of time, on our own we won’t survive neither.

That’s why the empty tomb of Jesus Christ is such great news. It testifies to the
fact that Jesus didn’t lie when he said that he alone is “the way, the truth, and
the life” – the only possibility to be justified before God, the only way to escape
death, and the only way to get to heaven (John 14:6).

Many object, “That’s too narrow! That disqualifies every other religion.” This true,

because there is no religion that can save you from your own grave, the only one
who can is Jesus Christ whose tomb is empty. He really has the power to save us
from our sins and grant us eternal life (John 3:16). The fact is that on our own,
tomorrow we will be a little closer to our own grave being full, and there is no one
else to help us other than Jesus Christ.

My Easter prayer is that you, and anyone else who has not put their hope and
trust in Jesus Christ for life and eternity will do so today. God’s word is clear,

“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart

that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the
heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting
in salvation. … For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be
saved (from sin, death, and God’s judgment).” Romans 10:9-10, 13 (HCSB,
parenthesis mine)

He is risen!

To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans