Jesus and the Empty Tomb, What Does It All Mean?

As a man of Christian faith, Good Friday means everything!! But also, Easter Sunday means everything!! But also, Christmas means everything!! Can you tell I’m a little dramatic? I guess it’s probably more accurate to say that each of these foundational moments in the Christian faith are so, so, so important. Without Good Friday, are our sins covered by Jesus? Without him rising three days later, do we have access to eternal life with God? Without his birth (Christmas), what even are we talking about??

The life of Jesus is very interesting and I dare even call it fascinating. He was an outcast, a friend of lowly people, yet he had no reservations about speaking boldly to the rich, elite, spiritual leaders, government officials, people in circles he wasn’t running in. And even with that kind of charisma, he still was humbly serving those around him, people in need of just something simple like relief from the obstacles of life.

I love him.

This week means everything!! Dang it, there I go again. Today is Saturday, the day between mourning Jesus’s death (Friday) and then Sunday rejoicing his unfathomable act of coming back to life with no secret outside help at all. Remember when Peter ran to the tomb (about 1 kilometer, I think) to see for himself what his friends said happened? How can all of that be anything but divine (not that Peter ran almost a mile with a robe on, although I wear a bathrobe in the morning and that seems like a pretty obvious impediment)? But back to the reason Peter went to the tomb… Jesus. Divine. Especially considering everything else he said and did that we know about. It must be true that Jesus was/is either a liar, lunatic, or Lord. There are no other choices. Psalm 22, “…all who go down to the dust will kneel before him– those who cannot keep themselves alive.” That’s either the biggest lie, the words of a crazy author (King David), or it’s true. It’s also pretty clever (good writing, your majesty!) but what choice am I making today? What choice will you make? There’s a lot at stake!

Because of his radical love, grace, forgiveness, patience, not to mention that his death covered my sins and in all the ways finished the punishment I (and we) deserve, I’ll kneel now before I go down to the dust. Am I doing everything perfectly? Ummm, did you read my post from Wednesday? 👀

Yeah, go back and read that sometime if you need a reason to feel good about your situation. Gee wiz I suck sometimes! OK OK, I’ll try to be less dramatic. I love in the Bible where it says “consider Jesus.” That’s all God’s ever really asked. Just think about what his life and death and resurrection could mean for us. I’m really starting to think it means… everything!!

-Out of the Wilderness