Easter Sunday brings great news: He is not in the tomb. He is risen!
But now what? What does this mean? What impact does the empty tomb have on my current reality, 2000 years later?
It means absolutely nothing if the words of Jeremiah aren’t true:
The heavens are shocked at such a thing
and shrink back in horror and dismay,
says the Lord.
“For my people have done two evil things:
They have abandoned me—
the fountain of living water.
And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns
that can hold no water at all!
. . . Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans,
who rely on human strength
and turn their hearts away from the Lord. . . .
. . . The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,
and desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?”
– Jeremiah 2:12-13; 17:5,9 NLT
The biggest war of the universe is not good vs. evil or God vs. Satan, but the war my soul waged against God. Somehow I tend to think that my transgressions have been small. Yet, look inside my heart! Yes, Jeremiah is right: it is wicked and I do not even see the bottom of the pit that it is.
C.S. Lewis said that at the core of any sin – no matter how “small” – is the heart belief that God is not truly Good. I call God a liar. And, believing a lie, I gorge myself on garbage instead of the amazing feast He prepares. I exalt myself and my shame. I rebel.
Not only does this put me in a lost war, but it yields brokenness and misery in the day to day battles.
My ultimate reality check will always be, “Do I desperately need to be rescued?” Am I truly on a raft with no motor headed straight over Niagara Falls?
Sin puts me in the raft. It is desperate. I do need a dramatic rescue.
I’ll never forget an experience I had a few years ago when my wife had to dial 911 for me. Fortunately that’s been the only 911 call we’ve ever made. I had been sick all day with some kind of virus (of the stomach variety) and it was going from bad to worse to unbearably awful in just a matter of hours. My body was so entirely dehydrated that I could barely move. Have you ever taken a wet wash cloth and thoroughly wrung it out, leaving it to dry on the clothes line? That was me. It became obvious that I could not keep any fluids in me more than a few minutes. After a while, my hands and arms began to tingle and slowly I lost feeling in them. What was going on? I remember debating back and forth with Shannon on how serious things might be. “I’ll be fine. . .I guess! I can’t feel my arms and I can’t move, but I’ll make it.” After saying that to myself for several minutes, I began to see (with Shannon’s urging) that maybe I did need some help after all! Finally I told her I did not know what to do except call 911. Bring the paramedics. I’m done. I needed a rescue. And, after a few hours of IV fluids, I was feeling much better.
To me, the most amazing part of God’s rescue story is that He didn’t just snap His fingers and resolve our sin problem by eternal decree. Nor did He turn His back, cover His eyes or cast a wink to let me “slide” into Heaven because my good deeds outweighed my bad in some half-just earthly economy. God got His hands dirty to intercede. He entered in to my desperate sin predicament in the most personal way He could: God gave His only Son. Jesus put Himself in my raft. He went over the cliff and bore the fury.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV This is really good news! But it is only good news IF I truly believe that my sin is the reason for such a dreadful payment (crucifixion) and such a dramatic rescue (Holy Jesus suffering in my place and being raised to life).
So, to directly copy from the sermon I heard this Easter: God Saved the Day! He saved my day. He saved the day of all time for those who turn to Him and believe. And the “now what?” question seems to be an easy answer: No longer walking as a dead man, every thought and action is an opportunity to express gratitude and joy. Now I truly live!
