I know I left them right here. It might be my keys, or my glasses! And I will find them eventually – but usually not in the place where I “know” I left them. Unfortunately, most of the time I didn’t leave them where I thought I did, either that, or they grow legs and walk away. Anymore it seems that I spend more time looking for things that I had just a minute ago than I do anything else.
This is annoying. Sometimes, it’s a minor annoyance – but sometimes it is major – like when I’m already running late, and I can’t find those keys! Of course, if I would follow my husband’s lead and hang them on the hook by our kitchen door, put there specifically for keys, I wouldn’t have this problem.
But what if wasn’t a thing I had lost? What if it was a person? The irritation would quickly escalate to panic, and quite possibly terror. A child “losing” a parent in a crowded park – or a mother turning around to find her toddler has wandered off – both of these can be cause for great fear.
When Jesus was put in the tomb, people expected Him to stay there. The disciples and followers were devastated, and scared for their lives. The chief priests and Pharisees were afraid that somehow the body would disappear, so they begged Pilate to post a guard outside of the tomb to keep that from happening. Perhaps the soldiers were not very happy about guarding a dead body, but they did their duty.
When Joseph and Nicodemus took the body, they wrapped it with a mixture of about seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes, and strips of linen. (See John 19:39, NIV). They put the body in a tomb. Joseph rolled a large stone in front of the entrance. The religious leaders sealed the tomb, and posted the guard. The body should have been there.
But Jesus didn’t stay in the tomb. He has risen, He has risen, indeed! When the women came to finalize His burial, they couldn’t find Him! They were looking in the wrong place. When the disciples ran to the tomb, He wasn’t there! They were looking for the living among the dead! When the guards told the chief priests what had happened, the priest gave the soldiers a large sum of money to tell everyone the disciples had stolen the body while they were sleeping. (It must have been a very large sum of money for soldiers to admit that they had fallen asleep while at their post.) Everyone expected His body to be right where they left it!
The joy of Easter is the empty tomb! He has risen, just as He said He would! He has conquered death. He has given us all the hope of new life. Death is not the end – it is only a door.
“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:15-20, NIV)
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