Patt Barnes came upon an old lady selling flowers on a busy city street. The lady’s face was old and wrinkled but radiant with an Easter smile. Taking a flower, Patt paid her and said, “How happy you look this morning.” The flower lady replied. “Why not? Everything is beautiful.” Patt was startled by her reply, because she was dressed so shabbily and seemed so frail. Patt said, “You surely wear your troubles well!” Again, the flower lady’s reply startled Patt: “When Jesus died on Good Friday.” She said, “that was the worst of days. Then, three days later-Easter! So when troubles come my way, I simply wait three days. Then everything gets all right again.” How could I better handle my troubles?
On Easter morning the women went to the tomb where Jesus had been buried. They had a sad task to perform – to complete the embalming of his body. But that was not the only reason they were going to the tomb. They wanted to be near the one who had filled their lives, and whose death plunged them into an inconsolable grief.
We’ve often done the same thing ourselves. When someone we love dies, we find it hard to accept that he/she is gone from us forever. We feel a need to maintain a link with the one who has died. One of the ways we meet this need is by visits to the grave. However, far from easing the pain of our loss, this may exacerbate it. It tends to make the dead even more dead, because nowhere do we become so sure that our loved one is dead as at the grave.
If things had gone as expected that first Easter morning, the women would have embalmed the body of Jesus, closed the tomb again, and come away more convinced than ever that what happened on Friday was not a bad dream but a terrible reality. But things did not go according to plan. At the tomb they met two angels who said to them, why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.’ It was to these faithful women disciples that the Easter message was first given: Jesus is not dead; he is alive. So they must not waste their time looking for him at the tomb.
All of us have stood forlornly in graveyards, where everything speaks of death. Yet it was fitting that it was here, where death seems to reign supreme, that the good news of Jesus’ resurrection was first announced. Do not look for your loved one in the grave. He/she is not there. Jesus overcame death, not just for himself, but for all of us. He is the first to rise from the dead, but we will follow him.
Jesus had no degree yet they called him Teacher; Jesus had no servants, yet they called Him Master; He had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher; Had no medicines, yet they called Him Healer; Had no army, yet Kings feared Him; He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world; He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him; He was buried in a tomb, but yet He lives today.
0 comments:
Post a Comment