From Despair

Confused.  Disillusioned.  Sorrowful.  Discouraged.

Have you ever laid down everything in your life in order to follow someone you believed in only to find out later that you were wrong?  Have your hopes and dreams ever been seemingly fulfilled only to be dashed to pieces by an irreversible event producing concrete evidence that your faith was unfounded?  Have you ever watched the most precious person in your life die a gruesome death right before your eyes?

If so, you know how they felt.

They were women.  Women who loved Jesus deeply, who followed Him closely, who had watched Him die.  One can only guess how they felt that morning as they walked to the place where He was buried with their spices and oils to anoint the body of the one whom they thought was the Messiah.  It’s possible that they pondered all that they had seen and heard over the course of several years.  It’s possible that they wondered how this happened, why this happened, and what they were supposed to do now.

I don’t really know how long their trek to the tomb was, but I do know that a short walk turns into a long walk if you are accompanied by a broken heart.  While they were not part of the 12 disciples, they still had still loved Jesus deeply.  Hearing Him preach and teach, witnessing Him heal multitudes, even watching on as He raised people from the dead had been more that enough to convince them that He was the One that their people had waited so long to see.

But a real Messiah wouldn’t have died on a cross, would He?  The cross was the most shameful vehicle of death.  It was reserved for the vilest of sinners, to disgrace them and to warn others.  Surely the real Son of God would not have allowed Himself to hang naked on a cross for all to see.

But they had seen Him on the cross.  His body lacerated by the whips of Roman soldiers.  Blood from His head pouring over His beaten and bloodied face.  His hands and feet nailed to the cross by spikes and His side punctured by a spear.  Jesus, who had once been held gently by the wood of a manger was now held harshly by the wood of a cross.

Then….He died.  His body was taken to a borrowed tomb where a large boulder sealed the entrance.  Guards were placed outside the tomb to ensure that no one could come and steal the body.  The One whom they had followed was gone.

All of this and so much more is why their souls were full of sorrow as they approached the tomb.  They expected to see the guards standing in front of the tomb.  They expected to see the boulder placed over the entrance to the tomb.  They expected to weep for sadness.  They did not get what they expected.

They saw the guards on the ground.  They saw the stone rolled back from the tomb.  They saw an angel sitting on the stone.  The words of love and light spoken by the angel caused their fog of sorrow to quickly flee. 

“He is not here; for His is risen!”

Eight words that changed everything!  From sorrow to gladness, from defeat to victory, from death to life!

From birth to death our lives are filled with difficulty.  Tragedies are common as are te tears that come with them.  It is possible that you feel much like the women did as they trudged toward the tomb. 

Confused.  Disillusioned.  Sorrowful.  Discouraged.

Listen closely.  Can you hear the angel?  Can you hear those eight glorious words?  If you can, then you know that there is still hope.  Jesus is alive.  Those who trust in Him will experience pain, sorrow, and death. But just as Jesus rose from the dead, we too shall rise.

“He is not here; for He is risen!”  If you are one of His, the same will one day be true for you.

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