“The Passion of the christ”

  Luke 25:1-5    But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?

The last time they saw the Master He was dead. The last time was on that Friday late afternoon. They were there when His body was lowered from the cross. Their memories held the images of Him battered, bruised, and bloodied. Although He had lost a lot of blood from His back, His brow, and His hands and feet, His face was still puffy and disfigured from the slaps and fists that had struck Him. Although His face was covered in dried blood, His skin was already pale and growing gray as His breath departed from Him. His joints were loose and lax. His muscles were flaccid and limp. He was dead. They knew He was dead. That is why they came on that early Sunday morning, to care for His dead remains with spices and love and prayers.

You can hardly blame them for being amazed, dumb-struck, and agog. The tomb they knew that He was in was now empty. Yes, they had heard His words that He would rise on the third day, but the words were so far away and forgotten in the reality of His death on that cross. The empty tomb was enough to drive them to their knees, the appearance of the men in dazzling apparel (angels) just compounded the shock. And then, without even the simplest “Fear not,” came the rebuke from the heavenly messengers, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

Why? Why!? Why!!? Because death is our common human touch point. Death is something we can understand. From almost the moment we begin to communicate we smack headfirst into the realization that everything and anything will die. Even if we delude ourselves while children into thinking that we have some form of immortality, we know that all around us things and people are dying. So many of the things we touch, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the homes we dwell in are dead, once living, but now dead.

So, I cannot blame these ladies in their grief from falling back on the common, the usual, and even the mundane reality that once dead means always dead. But I can fault us for staying in that default rationalization. For we still seek not the living, but the dead for our answers, our comfort, our hope. We seek peace and comfort in the dead and dying luxuries of this world. We look for guidance among the dying and lifeless leaders and philosophies of human civilization. We seek joy and contentment from what can barely prolong life, much less give us life, and life more abundantly, and life eternal.

Like those ladies on that wondrous morning, we need to be astonished, flabbergasted, shaken-up, turned around, and woken up to see the one and only Living One, The One and Only who went through death to bring us life, and that more abundantly. We need to take our eyes off of what is around us and ordinary and fix them squarely and permanently on what is truly alive and everlasting. We have heard the Good News that He lives and lives for us! We no longer need anything else. We have the Living One, Jesus Christ, true God and true man. We have the Life in Him. Our search is over!

In His peace,

Pastor Red Etzel