Things I Don't Know About Easter.

When it comes to Biblical study, conjecture is something I do my best to avoid. In the search for truth, being objective is key. Often, the endeavor’s greatest challenge is to remove, as much as possible, the passions and prejudices that make us who we are, without losing our ability to imagine the details of the events.

Yet, my mind can’t help but wonder about the events on the Saturday between The Cross and The Resurrection. 

Not much is recorded in the Bible about that Saturday. Obviously, being the Sabbath, they would have rested as recorded by Luke Chapter 23. Matthew’s Gospel records that the Pharisees placed a stone and a guards in front of the tomb in a response to Jesus’s predictions of returning from the grave.

Apparently, the disciples of Jesus had forgotten those predictions.

Perhaps, the events of Friday had eroded their faith. In any case, Saturday, must have been heartbreaking for those closest to Christ.  It’s obvious from scripture they didn’t know Lockridge’s sermon “Sunday’s a Coming”.  Jesus had led them on a journey of changing the world. God had already began to use them through their relationship with Jesus to literally save it, but they didn't know that. Jesus had introduced them to hope. They had been sure he was the Christ. All they knew,  their friend and leader was dead. Their hopes and dreams were crushed. Their expectations of a messiah had expired. Once again the world seemed lost. They probably wondered if they had been wrong about Jesus.  Surely, they must have wondered why hadn’t He done one of his miracles to save himself? Jesus had came and left.  The sun had rose and set. He was gone and nothing would ever be the same again.

If you’ve ever lost someone you love and look up to, you know that first 24 hours are the darkest. It’s like you’re heart and mind are playing ping pong with gigantic boulders. Back and forth it comes close and you slap it away. No one can win and you just want to stop playing. So that maybe the boulder would fall on you. Except you’re afraid if you do, you’ll forget something about that special someone you don’t want to. It’s emotionally exhausting.

And none of those people we lost were Jesus. Imagine the sorrow the disciples felt, without the belief of a resurrection.

 The church has the luxury of viewing Friday from victory. 

The thing about luxury is it’s rarely satisfied. Great minds that study the scripture aren’t content with simply knowing about where Jesus’s was Friday and Sunday. 

Great thinkers question where was his spirit and soul on Saturday ? For hundreds of years, brothers and sisters have debated whether Jesus’s soul was in hell or heaven on that Saturday. Men proclaimed two separate mysteries as truth and caused some to question the things we are sure of. 

I know the arguments, the scriptures involved, and even lean more one way than the other, but I don’t know. No matter how convincing theories get explained, I don't know that anyone knows.  And I don’t want what I don’t know to distract me from what I do know. 

I know I never want to  experience my life lived without Jesus. Praise God, I know I don’t have to. I know that some people are. I’ve seen the sad eyes of those who haven’t been set free by God, held captive by the unanswerable mysteries we don’t have to know to belong to Him. Mysteries from the past, or the ones we face now, or the ones we may face before Jesus comes back again, aren’t our salvation. It’s the Truth, He died, conquered the grave, and is coming again for those who belong to Him.

I know He called me to tell those that are living without Him about that Friday and Sunday. Lord willing, I’ll do that today and tomorrow. And everyday after that. 

Happy Easter. 

He Lives! 

He Reigns! 

Gazing into an Empty Tomb

Today, Christians all over the world celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. No doubt, defeating death is a cause to celebrate. Christ endured death. We had invented death in a collaboration with Satan, and together perfected it with the cross . On it, Jesus took our punishment, so man might once again be joined to God.  

Easter sounds so simple 2017 years later.  Here in America, we will all go to a egg hunts, eat a lot of ham, and blow up social media with our family photos. I enjoy it every year.

Sermons tend to be better at Easter. After all, today many people will come who rarely attend. Over the years, I've heard all sorts of metaphors come from the Easter celebration. Can anything offer more hope than an empty tomb? 

Every year, like the early followers of Christ, we come to gaze into an empty tomb. It's where you go from here that matters. Before the resurrection, most of those followers scattered in front of the cross. After meeting the resurrected Christ, those followers embraced the cross.

Christ life is an example we must live by. His life, His example includes His death. Jesus said " It is Finished"

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

2 Corinthians 5:21

"It is finished", are the words on which eternity pivots. Spoken on the cross, Christ calls us to death and life. We cannot have one without the other. Death to this world must come to have life in Christ. We cannot hope in our resurrection without embracing the cross. "It is finished" echoes through the ages, not as the ending of life, but death to hopelessness.

Rarely is it taught at Easter, but tucked away in the resurrection story is the great commission. Jesus returns from the dead to give us one task. Preach the Gospel. Tell the world about Him. What He has done for us is finished. What we do for Him cannot be. Once we meet the resurrected Christ, serving Him who saved us  must become more than annually gazing into an empty tomb. He came that we might have a full life. May we look outside the tomb, embrace His cross for us, and follow Him. 

Happy Easter

   

Between the Cross & the Resurrection

Tomorrow is the celebrated anniversary of God's magnum opus, The Resurrection. The day God, in human form, triumphed over death to save us. Just yesterday was the celebrated anniversary of greatest paradox in history. The crucifixion of Christ. Ironically, the crucifixion is simultaneously man's greatest injustice and only hope for redemption. Here were are, stuck in between these two monumental events. I'm guessing, the disciples must have felt Satan might be winning on the day before that first Easter. Sometimes, I feel like Satan is running amuck in between the moments God shows off in my life. As if , I'm in between two great seasons. One that already happened and one that is coming. It's those days, when I'm forced to "wait upon The Lord ", I meditate the most.  Unlike the disciples, we have the luxury of knowing Sunday is coming and grace will abound. I've learned one simple truth that gets me through those moments between God showing off. The truth is God is always showing off. It just takes a little more effort to miss it sometimes.   I'm somewhat addicted to excitement.  There's nothing I enjoy more than being in a moment when we are reaping a harvest for His kingdom or witnessing some other a supernatural event where God pours out His providential grace in provision. Even when life seems mundane and boring, I remind myself God is always awesome . His plan is perfect, and will work together for our good. Those moments, when it's the hardest to see, I focus on the mysterious things about God.  Today, the day before Easter, above all days, I reflect on the mystery of God's grace.

Grace is given at the expense of Jesus and is the costliest gift we can receive. By it's very definition, it is unattainable based upon merit or ability. Grace, so intricate in detail, God laid it out from the foundation of the world. So expensive, it cost the life of the creator of the universe. So perfect, its application determines the eternal destination of the soul.

 It's almost laughable reading the futile attempts of learned men describe how to receive it. Philosophical debates have been waged on how, when, and who can get it. Churches, have split over whether or not you can keep it, or loose it, in an endeavor to comprehend what is written about it. A man could loose his sanity trying to figure out grace.

I don't know which is a worse tragedy,  to over complicate salvation to the extent it appears impossible to receive, or to reduce and simplify it to a mere one time, once said, fix all, prayer. Both distort grace. It really comes down to one question. Can we be true believers in Christ, unless we are Christ followers? Truth be told, grace is a paradoxical as the cross. Can someone truely believe in Christ and not follow Him?

Jesus tells us,

"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." Luke 9: 24

I'm convinced many people know about grace but just do not want it. It's simple really, they know you can't have grace and be left unchanged. Seduced by this life, and the illusion of feeling in control, I've been there. It's overrated. If sanctity of life applies to this life, how much more to our spiritual life since we must loose one to save the other?  The more I let go of this life, the more alive I feel.  Every moment takes me closer to heaven and seeing Jesus. 

People, afraid of grace, feel they are captain of their own ships enjoying smooth sailing. They are destined to sink, unless, they abandon ship. Destined to drown, unless, Christ pulls them from a would be watery grave.

Grace tends to navigate her ship to rougher waters. She does not sail, for her captives, now slaves of Christ, man the oars. Christ followers cannot self navigate, for Christ is the way. Christ steers the ship, and we should row aimlessly comforted knowing, not only the ship, but the passengers, and even the sea, belong to Jesus. I don't know exactly how I got chained to this oar in the galley of this ship. I'm just glad to be here and hope I get to see you.

It is my prayer you would become a committed follower of Christ. Happy Easter.

What's Missing In Inspirational Words?

"Inspiration for 2015" was the the title of the calendar buried underneath the seven months of neglect piled on my desk. Twelve photos of adventurous locations with sportsmen engaged in extreme activities were setting the illustration for each month's  inspirational one word headline. The calendar used the words ambition, strategy, leadership, excellence, integrity, energy, precision, teamwork, vision, execution, and inspiration all aimed at keeping people focused on achieving success. A caption followed every headline highlighting the importance of each motivational word.  Yet no matter how success is measured, one word was missing. Sacrifice.
Whether the religious or metaphoric sense of the word, a sacrifice is giving up something for the sake of something else. Little can be achieved without sacrifice. It unlocks the full potential of every human gift. Sacrifice separates greatness from mediocrity while bridging victory to those still defeated.  Even the gift of love's ultimate token, is sacrifice. Nothing can be more inspiring.
Our souls yearn for sacrifice. We crave it so much it lines the pages of our favorite novels and finds its way into of our art, music, and films. Sacrifice transforms all the words of my calendar into "service". Perhaps, the soul knows its addiction to self can only be cured by sacrifice.
Although we all seem to know we need sacrifice,  many aren't sure what to sacrifice or to whom. Ironically, many think the Christian life is too much of a sacrifice. As if, they are missing out on something. Other than regrets all "Christian sacrifices" amount to quantity. I have no problem sacrificing quantity for quality. Sadly, most of humanity's sacrifices are offerings to the gods of self worth, preservation, and acceptance.  But, once a man got sacrifice absolutely right. Jesus said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13  
Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. Bloody, broken, and neglected He was buried under a pile of our ambition, He died to save us. However, He would rise to illustrate our lives with an adventure. Now, you can make a sacrifice for any god, but I bet you can't find another God who will make a sacrifice for you. Happy Easter.