alive!

Text: Luke 24:1-12; 1 Corinthians 15; Isaiah 25:6-9; Matthew 28

The world was waiting – for a sign of life, for a miracle, for a happier ending to the story.
The world was waiting, and Sunday came. Praise the Lord, Sunday came.

When the women went to the tomb early that third day – to cover their Lord in their tears and the customary burial spices they’d prepared – the stone which sealed the tomb had been pushed aside. Oh, how their hearts must have sunk at the sight. To witness His betrayal, His brutal death, His burial and His absence, and now this? What on earth was happening here?

The angels made a grand entrance, as angels often do, and they asked the question that reaches through centuries of history to our own aching, weary world: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5b, NIV)

Can you hear that conversation from the cemetery echoing even now in your own heart?

What makes you think He’s dead?

Well, because He died. I saw it myself.

But what makes you think that’s the end?

Isn’t it? I’ve seen people die. They don’t come back. I’ve killed relationships and opportunities. I’ve suffocated good things with my own hands. None of them came back. When things die, when people die, they don’t live again. That’s the way it works.

Not anymore.

I don’t understand.

Everything has changed.

What do you mean?

You can stop searching the graveyard for the hope, the love, the life you long for. HE IS ALIVE.

Resurrection Sunday is more than the miracle of a man coming back to life.
It is the fulfillment of a promise.
It is the irremovable seal on God’s vow of love to His children.
It is the resurrection of hope.
It is the definitive declaration that the Love we long for is not dead.

He is alive. Oh, dear Sisters, He is alive!

He sits with you, He prays for you, He waits with the Father for you.

For you who wonder if a laugh will ever again escape your lips – He lives for you.
For you who weep with gratitude for gifts you could not possibly have earned – He lives for you.
For you whose eyes strain to see something – anything – good around the bend – He lives for you.
For you who sit alone in the stillness of grief and silence – He lives for you.
For you whose arms are linked to fear on one side and hope on the other – He lives for you.
For you who are soul-weary from searching among dead things for the life your heart longs for – He lives for you.

He lived and died to buy your pardon, just like the old hymn says.
He wrapped His infinite being in flesh for you (John 1:14).
He endured temptation and humiliation, scorn and scourge for you (Hebrews 4:14-16, Matthew 27:15-44).
He satisfied the wrath of the holy and just God the Father for you (Romans 5:6-11).
And He walked out of the grave that Sunday morning for you.

He lives. Hallelujah, the Gospel is true!