4-18-22<\/p>\n
We have just passed through the darkest days of humankind\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t mean the headlines and videos of the war in Ukraine, or the travails and statistics of our contemporary challenges. I don\u2019t mean, in sweeping reference, to the bloody horrors of the last century.<\/p>\n
As we recognize events and commemorate moments of history, whether we learn from the past or pretend things did not happen; whether we honor people or invent heroes of distant days; whether we celebrate fictional events or ignore noble events \u2013 I think the most horrible\u2026 the coldest\u2026 the loneliest\u2026 the most confusing\u2026 the most frightening days of humankind were the days between the death of Jesus and His rise from the grave.<\/p>\n
He died.<\/p>\n
The life was gone from Him. The Roman guards pierced his side to make sure, and blood flowed from His heart. He was taken from the cross, and His dead body was cleansed, prepared for burial, covered in a shroud and placed in a donated rich man\u2019s tomb, secured with a heavy stone. His mother and others tended to His burial. Officials placed 24-hour guards at the tomb to make sure that zealots, or His enemies, did not steal the Body.<\/p>\n
At the moment that Jesus breathed His last breath, there arose stormy skies and winds. The earth shook. A giant veil in the Temple spontaneously ripped, ceiling to floor. Reports of citizens and contemporary historians, not only Scripture, told of these things.<\/p>\n
Turbulent nature was reflected in the minds and hearts of His followers. Distraught that their precious Friend was tortured and killed \u2013 taken from them \u2013 was compounded by confusion. And terror.<\/p>\n
Would they be next?<\/p>\n
What of their \u201cmovement\u201d?<\/p>\n
Not remembering the prophecies of Scripture, or Jesus\u2019s predictions \u2013 or His comforting promises \u2013 they wondered whether the past three years were a bad dream. Or a ruse, a plot, or a fraud.<\/p>\n
They scattered in fear.<\/p>\n
What to do? Where to go? Hide? Pretend the Man from Nazareth was a mere teacher, a persuader only, unreliable about all the wisdom He shared?<\/p>\n
How to explain all the miracles\u2026 the healings, the supernatural wisdom, the changed lives \u2013 their<\/em> changed lives???<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n Those few days \u2013 after Jesus suddenly had been ripped from their lives and hopes and dreams \u2013 must have been the emptiest, coldest hours anyone could experience. Women weeping, men crying for blood, authorities threatening, and\u2026 His friends huddled, hiding, shivering in fear.<\/p>\n One disciple said that He had believed Jesus was going to start a revolt against the government. Another said He was sure that Jesus was going to strike the religious leaders and the Roman authorities dead. Another must have doubted that Jesus was the Messiah after all, as they had come to believe.<\/p>\n Surely some \u2013 certainly His mother Mary, at least \u2013 must have remembered Scriptures, like the symbolism of Jonah in the great fish for three days; or what Jesus said, confusing at the time, about the Temple: if destroyed, it would be restored in three days.<\/p>\n Then the women went to the tomb.<\/p>\n The women intended to honor the dead Jesus, leave perfumes and oils if they could.<\/p>\n The women found the guards gone. The women found the tomb empty. The women saw the burial cloths that had covered the Body\u2026 but there was no Body there.<\/p>\n The women returned to the cowering Disciples, sharing what they had seen. All ran, entered the tomb, and saw what the women had reported.<\/p>\n They returned to where they had been hiding, and began to discuss, and plan, and remember things Jesus had foretold, and, and\u2026 what? Was Jesus in fact alive? Where was He? Is there hope? Was this not a catastrophe, as they had feared? Was this not — God forgive them for their suspicions — all a strange game? Or was God doing something supernatural, again, in their midst?<\/p>\n Mary Magdalene, however, returned to the tomb. While weeping, a man asked why, and she wondered if \u201cthey had stolen\u201d the Savior\u2019s body. She assumed the questioner was a gardener\u2026 but she turned and recognized the transformed, resurrected, living Jesus.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n She and the women became the church\u2019s first evangelists. The good news was shared with the Disciples, and then the groups of followers, then the city of Jerusalem and countryside of Galilee, then the world.<\/p>\n Supernatural? For the next 40 days, Jesus appeared spontaneously to individuals and crowds. Walking through walls, performing more miracles, dispensing more wisdom. And now He gave His followers \u201cmarching orders,\u201d different than advice about merely how to act. He issued \u201cThe Great Commission\u201d \u2013 that believers in Him should \u201cgo into all the world sharing the Gospel [literally, the good news<\/em>]\u00a0and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.\u201d<\/p>\n Not that Jesus\u2019s ministry was ever a game, but henceforth being a follower of Christ became a serious life-commitment.<\/em><\/p>\n He challenged His followers: Do you love Me?<\/em><\/p>\n He commanded His followers: Feed My sheep.<\/em><\/p>\n He promised His followers: Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.<\/em><\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n Were they ready?<\/p>\n Are we ready today?<\/p>\n Are you ready?<\/p>\n The Life of Jesus is not a mere story. The ministry of Jesus was more than performances to impress crowds. The torture and death of Jesus is more than a lesson. The Resurrection of Jesus was more than proof that He overcomes death. The Ascension of Jesus will be confirmation that He was Divine. That He is<\/em> one with the Father.<\/p>\n The world might still ignore Him, reject Him, deny Him, explain Him away, persecute Him (and us), in fact hate<\/em> Him. And us.<\/p>\n The world can be savage against us \u2013 because of the Jesus who lives in us \u2013 or it can dismiss us; trivialize the Savior. It can call Christianity a game.<\/p>\n Let them do so. We can turn around and call the \u201cgame\u201d Jesus played as something He virtually said that Easter morning:<\/p>\n