Praise the Lord for this glorious and ethereal Easter Season. Only our
God and Lord brings fullness of life, fullness of joy, and life everlasting,
through an Empty cross, Empty tomb, and in through the person of the Risen and conquering Lord. He brings new life in and through the Savior who was crucified,
buried, and, on the third day, rose again. Only our Lord brings
triumph and victory through an Empty Cross. He alone brings new
life in dead places and in dead people. His power is unmatchable and
extraordinary. Only the Lamb of God cleanses all our sins and makes us
whole again. The one who was crucified sets the captive
free. The one who appeared powerless at the Cross has
triumphed over the grave. He is the one who said, "I thirst",
and also declared with boldness "It is finished/". The
ever-resounding sound of Easter morning was, "Why do you seek the living
among the dead? He is not here. He is Risen as He
said. Come and See and go quickly and tell.
It
has been a wonder-filled Eastertide. We have been basking in an
Easter glow. We spent some time with Sunita, Andy, Gabe, Addie, Asha, Laureen,
Jess, Tom, and Lindy here in New York. We all met at the homestead in New
Berlin where we ate, watched the children, ate, played in the park, ate, took
long family walks, ate, examined the flowers in the yard, ate, played games,
talked, played, and prayed, and ate. The children are all growing up too
quickly! The little ones especially loved playing in the park across the street,
even bringing their shoes to us (the adults) so that we could help them get
ready to go there. One of the "littles" even insisted,
"Mama...Mommy... I go swing." One day it rained too much
for outdoor pursuits, but the children played inside - making (not too much)
mischief. Our hearts are full although our home is empty once
again.
Alice
and I took a drive to the Triple Cities yesterday. The sweet Spring
of 2017 has sprung all around. The flowers are almost in full bloom with
variegated and brilliant colors, and saturated with heart-stirring
fragrances. The trees are budding, even blooming in the garb of
Spring. The earth is saturated with the smells and sounds of
Spring. The rivers and streams are laughing. The orchards and
vineyards are blooming again. We stopped by to see some garlic patches
and the strawberry patches. The garlic is up and strawberry plants have
started bearing again. Praise the Lord for the wonder of His love and the
wonder of His creation. We are getting ready for worship and celebration this
morning. It is a glorious day. Plan to be in the House of the Lord ,
wherever you might be.
Easter
Sunday was warm and even a summer like day. The temperature climbed into
the low eighties. The Risen Lord ordered a very sunny and hot day for His
Resurrection. We are so blessed to share that with the Risen Lord and all
His people all over the world.
As
we live in the afterglow of Easter, we are intrigued and provoked with the
realty of Easter, which is full of wonder and mystery. Once we are
captured by it our lives are changed forever. Our empty cups are filled
to the brim. Our mourning is turned into dancing. He turns our
sackcloth into garments of praise. The fearful become fearless. The
timid become bold. The self-centered and self-seeking become
Christ-centered, generous, giving, and self-forgetful.
According
to John’s account of the Resurrection event,, there was a great deal of running
around on the first Easter. First, according to John, Mary Magdalene came
(John
20:2 ) and she, seeing the stone rolled away and the tomb empty,
started running, although she did not yet believe in resurrection, for
that would come later (John
20:11-18 ). For now, in the pre-dawn darkness, she just begins
running back to tell the rest of the disciples that Jesus’ body is gone.
“They’ve taken away my Lord and I don’t know where to find him,” she
shouts. Mary Magdalene, in her grief, ran. Jesus was crucified,
dead and buried, and now someone had taken His body, so she ran.
On
her sprint back to town, she met Peter and the beloved disciple. On her
way back she met these two disciples. When she told them what she
saw, (or didn’t see), they broke into a run. Whereas Mary had run
from the empty tomb they ran toward it.
It is written that the two two disciples didn’t just run together toward the tomb, they raced against one anther toward the tomb. Times I wander, why did they run against one another? What did they think they were running toward? Mary Magdalene interpreted the empty tomb as further tragedy. Not only had they killed Jesus; now someone had stolen His body. Perhaps they were running toward that awful, terrible, last insult.
Tragedy struck the campus of an elementary school few years ago. There was death and bloodshed. Someone informed the mothers at coffee, and everyone of them jumped up and started running toward the school. Why run? Why run toward the tragic? If it is not your child who is hurt, then some other mother’s child is hurt. During the tragegy of 9/11 the firemen, police, first responders, and chaplains all ran, even raced toward the scene of the tragedy. It is the nature of people to run toward both good news and bad. We must know, and quickly, if the news, whether good or bad, is for us.
Throughout the Gospel
of John, it’s Peter who is the leader of the disciples, the one with a ready
word on most occasions, but it was this “beloved disciple,” John, who
seems closest to the heart of Jesus. They ran to see which one of them —
Peter the leader, or the disciple who was beloved — would arrive first.
As they ran, surely there was something in them which told them that, in this
strange event, they were running toward some strange, new, possibly terrifying
future.
It is written that these two sprinting disciples came
to Jesus’ tomb just like that, not knowing, running toward some new, strange
event which they instinctively knew meant a change in their world. John
says that the beloved disciple outran Peter, won the race, got there first (John
20:4 ). That may seem a small detail, but isn’t it
interesting John mentions that the beloved disciple got there first? Not
only that, John says that he was the first one to peer into the empty tomb and
believe. The beloved disciple was the first to believe in Easter.He was the
first to belive in the Resurrection. It is profound and heart warming.
I think that John not only wanted to tell us that the beloved disciple got there first, but also how he got there. Others came to Easter in different ways. Mary would not believe until she stands face-to-face with the risen Christ and heard him call her name, “Mary!” Thomas did not believe until the Risen Christ offered to let Thomas touch His pierced hands and wounded side. For Thomas, only seeing is believing. But the beloved disciple came to Easter another way. He believed without seeing. He didn’t hear Jesus or see the Risen Christ. All he did is come, peer into the dark, empty tomb and believe. It is powerful and poignant to realize that “the beloved disciple, unlike the others, believed in the resurrection in the light of Jesus’ absence.” There was nothing there, no evidence, no Shroud of Turin, no photos, just an empty place. But, “He saw and believed” (
It is stunning to know that John the beloved disciple was the first to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus. He was the very first believer in the resurrection, the first to believe in the triumph of God, who came there by the same path that you and I take — by not seeing the Risen Christ. “Blessed are those who have not seen” says Jesus (of all of us) “and yet have come to believe.”
The beloved disciple knew his beloved Jesus. Thus, when he saw the empty tomb he did not think abandonment, defeat, and death. He thought about freedom, victory, and life. In a moment he sensed that Jesus had taken their relationship to a new, unexpected, and more wonderful plane.
In Christ the Risen One.
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