Resurrection Sunday

And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that you seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.      Matthew 28:5,6a

                The truth of Christianity stands or falls on Easter day. No one argues that Jesus could not have been born, lots of people are born. No one argues that he has been reported as doing miracles from healing the sick to raising the dead, the reports are a part of history. No one argues against his so presenting himself that many who were waiting for the  Messiah believed he was Messiah. Nobody argues that he died, all people die; nor even that he died with a sign nailed above his head that said the King of the Jews.  Nobody argues that he did not claim to give life. That, too, is in the historical record.

                Some of those who consider these things may not believe them, but they cannot argue the claims did not happen. So, they must say, if he is dead what difference does it make? Death puts an end to even the most remarkable life.

                But, on the other hand, if that man rises from the dead, it is proof that all the rest said about him is true. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

                It is either or! The law of contradiction tells us two opposite and conflicting things cannot be true. If one is right, the other of necessity must be wrong. So, was the life of Jesus just a wonderful interlude in the record of mankind’s wickedness that ended when he died, or is he alive and the human experience changed forever when he resurrected? How can we know?

                Find the answer in God’s revelation, the Bible. At the grave one of God’s messengers, an angel, gave this decisive message when he said, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen (Luke 24:5a,6b).”

                Hallelujah, the grave has no victory. Jesus is alive forevermore.

A Devotional Though From Genesis

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.     Genesis 50:20

                Certainly when the brothers of Joseph hated him as a young man, and planned his murder, and relented to sell them in the slavery, because they hated their own brother, no thinking person could see how that would be good, or considered good for Joseph, or the perpetrators. Without doubt these jealous and hateful brothers meant what they did to be an evil thing for their brother, a hurtful thing, something that brought him low and made his life miserable. Had you interviewed them at the time and had they been honest, they never would have thought that Joseph would overcome, that good would come despite the evil that he was facing. Evaluating Joseph’s circumstances most people would have probably thought “ How would that even be possible?” We learn the answer to that question here in the last chapter of Genesis were Joseph said “ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.” The Lord God of heaven and earth is sovereign. He uses situations, and circumstances, whether good or bad to bring about his purposes in this world.

                Looking ahead this month to the celebration of Easter, the same thought can be applied to the passion. How could anyone viewing the hatred of religious leaders toward Jesus, the fickleness of the people who cried to crucify him, the bloody nails driven by the Roman soldiers through his hands and his feet, and the terrible, torturous, ignominious death upon the cross be seen as anything good. Wouldn’t those who do not know God consider the term Good Friday a misnomer? How could good come out of the evil of the cross? Because the sovereign Lord God meant it unto good.

 His enemies meant the cross to destroy Him, God meant the cross to destroy sin and death. As the risen Christ stood before the world in His living glory He could have used Joseph’s words “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”