Where's Jesus?
Luke 24:1-8
1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” 8Then they remembered his words.
If Jesus was and is all powerful, wouldn't he have escaped the cross? No. Instead, Jesus escaped the grave.
- If Jesus was and is all powerful, wouldn't he end suffering and heartache in our world? No. Instead, Jesus wraps his arms around us and sits with us in the midst of pain....promising to bring us out on the other side.
- Are we missing Jesus because we're looking for the miraculous, the mass healings, the fiery destruction of evil? Are we looking for all of this rather than in the forgiveness of our own attitudes, the softening of our own hearts, and the promise of new beginnings?
- Are we looking in all the wrong places for Easter?
- The resurrection means that the unknown is only unknown to us….Jesus will still be in it.
- The resurrection means that when there seems to be no good options, Jesus reveals possibilities we couldn't even imagine.
- What's the mess that you think you've made in your life that seems unrecoverable? Do you trust the resurrected Jesus to transform it into a masterpiece?
TODAY'S PREACHERS
Randy Reese & Debbie Reese are Co-Directing Pastors of Calvary UMC
