Brown's Daily Word 3-25-08

Good Morning,
The Lord of creation must love women; He made so many of them. The Lord of Redemption must love women for He used them as the witnesses to His birth, mission, passion, death, and Resurrection. It was a woman who was the first to know about the Incarnation from an angel. It was who was the first to believe in the incarnation of Jesus. Women were the last to leave the crucifixion on Good Friday. Women were the first to come to the tomb of Jesus on Easter morning. The Lord has wired the women with a special DNA, so that they have a great capacity to love to the end.
That women were the first witnesses of the resurrection is really a cool thing. The testimony of women was not acceptable in courts of law at that time. Only men were considered to be credible witnesses, so this actually gives greater credibility to the resurrection story. If someone had made up the story, if it was fabricated, they certainly would not have made women the first witnesses. They would have made it Peter or John or some other respected man. But women were, in fact, the first witnesses in the gospels. That’s what really happened.
Because Jesus’ body was placed in the tomb just moments before the Sabbath began, there wasn’t time to complete the burial procedures before the Sabbath, and Sabbath laws forbade work on the Sabbath. Thus, as soon as the Sabbath was over on Saturday at sundown, the women went to the local shop and bought burial spices. By then it was dark, so they waited through another long night until first light on Sunday morning, when they went to the tomb. They certainly didn’t expect the resurrection; they had an important job to do,embalming the body.
They were overcome with grief as they trudged along on their sad mission. Only
as they made their way to the tomb did it dawn on them, “What about the stone? Who will roll the stone away for us?" It was far too big for them to move by themselves. Who could move it? In a way that stone is a reminder of life’s insurmountable problems and barriers for us. They block our way. They are too great for us to move on our own, and we don’t know what we can do about them.
As they arrived at the tomb, the women looked up, and saw that the stone was already rolled back. God takes care of barriers even when we cannot.
The women did not know whether this was good news or bad news, but the way things had been going, they probably expected the worst. Their hearts were pounding as they cautiously approached the tomb. Had someone stolen the body? God forbid, had they desecrated it? Was someone still inside? They didn’t know what to expect as they stepped inside. Their eyes began to adjust to the low light, and they were startled to see a young man sitting there. Their hearts leaped in fear. The text says they are “startled” or “alarmed.” Terrified might be a good word.
The visitor was, of course, an angel. In the Bible angels strongly resembled people—no wings, no halos, no special glow. And usually when angels appeared, people were terrified. So here, as in most cases, the angel’s first words were, “Don’t be alarmed. Settle down. Don’t be afraid.” Then he gave them a message that changed them and the world forever. It is a message that truly breaks the bounds of life’s limitations. It contains two parts, each having an implication—a “therefore” or “so what”—connected with it.
The first part of the message is, You’re looking for Jesus, the Nazarene, who was crucified. He isn’t here. He has been raised from the dead. Their minds probably could not get around this, because it was not at all what they expected. He confirmed that they were in the right place. "Look, this is where they laid his body." The implication is, “Look, this is the place. But the body is gone. It’s not here. He is risen!”
This is arguably the most important, and one of the best-attested, facts of history. The fact of the resurrection is very convincing. If the resurrection didn’t happen, a lot of other things would have to be explained. For instance, 1) how do you explain the empty tomb? Some have argued that the disciples came and stole the body while the Roman guards slept. But if a Roman guard was caught sleeping on duty, he was executed. They had pretty good motivation to stay awake. Even if the whole group had slept, wouldn’t the noise of the disciples moving the stone have awakened even one of them? The disciples themselves were grief-stricken and distraught. They didn’t have it in them to pull off such a theft. Furthermore, almost all of the disciples were martyred for preaching that Jesus is alive. Is it conceivable that under the pain of torture and death not one of them would ever break and tell the truth if they had stolen the body?
You say maybe somebody else stole the body? Who? The Jews? The Romans? They both wanted to show that Jesus had not risen, so why wouldn’t they produce the body if they had it? It would have been easy to kill the whole Christian movement in those early years by simply coming up with the body. But they couldn’t do it. Besides, a thief would not take time to take care of the grave-clothes. They would have taken the clothes along with the body. The tomb was empty.
This is the news these women encountered that first Easter morning when they stepped into that empty tomb. He is risen! And because he is risen, there is an implication for them, a response. Go and give this message to his disciples, including Peter. The women were the first believers to be specifically told to tell others about Jesus. You will be my witnesses. It is the mandate of the whole church because Christ is alive.
The specific mention of Peter is a tremendous blessing. Remember Peter had failed Jesus - big time. He denied that he even knew him. But the resurrection revokes death, sin, and failure. It shows God is greater. It’s the promise of a new start. I t proves our past can’t limit us or hold us back. This hints at Peter’s restoration a short time later despite his huge failure. It reminds us that Jesus doesn’t give up on us, his disciples, no matter how badly we have failed. Because of the resurrection, there is hope of a new and positive future.
Jesus goes ahead of you. His promises are true. That’s the second part of the angel’s message. The implication or response implied by that is trust him. Trust him. He said he would come back from death and he did. If he can do that, he can keep all of his other promises as well. He will be with you. He will never abandon you. He will forgive your sins. He will restore you to God. He will restore purpose and meaning to your life. He will give you joy and peace. He’ll give you power to live a new life. He has proven himself faithful. He keeps his promises, so trust him.
The women at the tomb were overwhelmed. They were dumbfounded, to say the least. They stood in awe and wonderment. They didn’t know what to think. Mark says that they fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, saying nothing to anyone because they were too frightened to talk. Obviously their silence was temporary. You can’t keep news like this secret. The fact that their story is written here shows that they did share it. They did tell others, though initially they were dumb because they were afraid. Fear kept them from telling others what they knew about Jesus.
The resurrection transforms a hopeless end into an endless hope. Because Jesus rose from death, we can trust him as our Savior. The resurrection shows that our faith does not depend on our own adequacy. It depends on the power of God. The disciples failed repeatedly, yet the gospel went forward by God’s power, not by their successes. Failure is not the end. Don’t we need to hear that? Failure is not the end. The Risen Lord is at work, even through our failings.
Like the first disciples, our greatest need is not just to see or hear about the resurrection, but to have the resurrection happen to us. Lloyd Ogilvie says, “The most powerful historical proof of the resurrection is the ‘resurrected’ disciples. Dull, defeated people became fearless, adventuresome leaders. Cowards became courageous; the timid became triumphant; the inept did the impossible. ‘He is risen!’ became the joyous chant of a new life without limits” (Life without Limits, p. 283). Jesus said, "Because I live, you will live also" (John 14:19). The resurrection life is the same as eternal life. It is far more than just time with the ends knocked out. It is a new quality of life that includes God in our day-to-day experience and is powered by his Spirit. The message of Easter is that the resurrection can happen to us now.
Paul says in Romans 6, "Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was." That’s not just by and by when we die. We are raised to new life right now. He says, "Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. Now the power of God lives in us, rather than the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life. We are sure of this because Christ rose from the dead, and he will never die again." And Paul concludes, "So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus" (vs 5-9, 11).
Because Jesus broke through death, we can live a new life without limits. Think back to those things that limit you. With Ogilvie we can say that we, by ourselves, are not able. But with the confidence of the resurrection we can know that he is able. Listen to the undaunted faith of those early Christians in whom the resurrection was more sure than their own pulse beat, ‘He is able to strengthen those who are tempted’ (Hebrews 2:18); ‘He is able to save those who draw near to God through him’ (Hebrews 7:2); ‘He is able to keep you from falling’ (Jude 24); ‘He is able to subdue all things unto himself’ (Philemon 3:21); ‘He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day’ (2 Tim 1:12); ‘He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think’ (Eph 3:20).”
Easter is not just a celebration of something that happened 2000 years ago. It is the celebration of the power of the Risen Savior over sin and death, that gives us new life today. Jesus's resurrection power in us frees us from the old boundaries and limits and the “NOs” that had kept us bound. The Bible says that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives (Romans 6:4 NLT).

He is Risen. Hallelujah! Christ is Risen indeed!
Brown
• "No, we can never think that Jesus died in despair or "of a broken heart," as some have said. He was dying in victory, not defeat. He foresaw, if anyone ever did, that future which is more real than the present."
-- Frederick C. Grant
• • "Rise heart: thy Lord is risen. Sing His praise without delays, Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise with Him mayst rise: That, as His death calcined the to dust, His life may make thee gold, and much more, just."
-- George Herbert
• "Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted."
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• "Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime."
-- Martin Luther
• "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? This is so true that even Satan cannot deny it. Christ's resurrection and victory over sin, death and hell is greater than all heaven and earth. You can never imagine his resurrection and victory so great but that in actuality it is far, far greater."
-- Martin Luther