It is Holy Week, and the entire church is looking forward to Easter Sunday and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. We may be preparing to participate in Good Friday services, sunrise services, pancake breakfasts, Easter cantatas, ham dinners, and/or Easter egg hunts. Are
these celebrations and remembrances that are a part of Holy Week merely history or traditions that we do once a year? Does Jesus’ resurrection have any effect on our daily lives? Should it? What effect did the news of His resurrection have for those first eyewitnesses who arrived to
discover an empty tomb that first Resurrection morning?
Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was
dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly
there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven,
rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his
clothing was white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and
they fell into a dead faint.
Then the angel spoke to the women. ‘Don’t be
afraid!’ he said. ‘I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He
isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see
where his body was lying. And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he
has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see
him there. Remember what I have told you.’ (Matt 28:1-7 NLT)
Can you imagine the tangled thoughts and emotions of these
women? Try putting yourself in their place. It has only been a few days since
you witnessed the cruel, violent death of the man that you had invested the
past two or three years of your life to follow. Afterwards, you, along with
several of His other disciples, hurried to get His body buried in a tomb before
the Sabbath began. You all cried together through the Sabbath, utterly
devastated by the knowledge that He was really gone, and sealed in a tomb. You
tried to process what had happened and what your next steps should be. All you
could come up with at the time was that He deserved better than a hurried
burial before the Sabbath, so you made plans to revisit His grave. On Sunday
morning, a couple of you trudged to the tomb, planning on doing a better job of
preparing Jesus’ body for a proper burial.
Try to imagine the shock and joy that collided with the fear and
confusion in the minds of these women when they saw the angel and heard the
news that Jesus had risen from the dead! How would you have responded to such
an astonishing change of events?
These ladies immediately
obeyed the angel’s instructions and they “rushed to give the disciples the
angel’s message” (Matt 28:8 NLT). They were so overwhelmed by the good news
that Jesus was alive that they could not wait to tell the others. They joyfully
did what they were commissioned to do, and then “as they went, Jesus met them
and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him”
(Matt 28:10 NLT).
The news of Jesus’ resurrection turned their lives upside down
and moved them to action and to unashamed, extravagant worship. Does the good
news of Jesus’ death and resurrection do the same for me or for you? Does it
move you to action, to do something? Does it move you to unashamed worship of
Jesus? The gospel is such amazing news that it should turn our lives upside
down, move us to action, and move us to extravagant worship.
Be intentional during this special week, during this time when the entire body of
Christ is intensely focused on the suffering, crucifixion, burial, and
resurrection of Jesus. Allow these events to affect your life. To move you to action.
To inspire you to extravagant, unashamed worship. To turn your life upside down
for His Kingdom.
(This blogpost was adapted and excerpted from Part One of Follow Jesus, Share the Journey, available on Kindle.)
