It's Thursday of Holy Week 2020. Our nation and the world are in the midst of the upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Though it has significantly changed our current way of living, it hasn't changed what is most important, that which is eternal. Jesus is Alive! And that fact changes everything.
Max Lucado, in his book God Is With You Every Day, wrote this beautiful insight for April 1.
The King Is Risen!
The angel answered and said to the women, ". . . I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here; for He is risen, as He said" (Matthew 28:5–6).
"He has risen."
Three words in English. Just one in Greek. Ēgerthē. So much rests on the validity of this one word.
If it is false, then the whole of Christianity collapses like a poorly told joke.
Yet, if it is true, then God’s story has turned your final chapter into a preface.
If the angel was correct, then you can believe this: Jesus descended into the coldest cell of death’s prison and allowed the warden to lock the door and smelt the keys in a furnace.
And just when the demons began to dance and prance, Jesus pressed pierced hands against the inner walls of the cavern. From deep within he shook the cemetery. The ground rumbled, and the tombstones tumbled.
And out he marched, the cadaver turned king, with the mask of death in one hand and the keys of heaven in the other. He has risen!
Not risen from sleep. Not risen from confusion. Not spiritually raised from the dead; physically raised.
The bodily resurrection means everything.
If Jesus lives on only in spirit and deeds, he is but one of a thousand dead heroes.
But if he lives on in flesh and bone, he is the King who pressed his heel against the head of death.
What he did with his own grave he promises to do with yours: empty it.
(God’s Story, Your Story)