Easter

I know that today is not Easter, but tomorrow I will busy being “Martha” taking care of details, so I am going to set aside today as my day to worship my risen Lord and think about the glory of His resurrection.

I have read the resurrection story so many times, but this time I found a couple of things exciting about the resurrection and a couple of humorous things.  Since this is a joyous occasion, I hope it will be okay if I just mention the things that strike me as funny.

The first thing that is humorous to me is that I see how much my son-in-law, Justin, is like Jesus.  In John 20, verse 7, John points out that the burial cloth that covered Jesus head was folded.  That is just what Justin would have done. I am not certain just who folded this linen cloth, but I am going to presume that it was Jesus and this shows me that Jesus and Justin have something in common. They are neat.  (I’m just kidding, Justin is more like Jesus than just being neat.)  It's kind of endearing to me to think of Jesus coming to life and then getting up and folding the linen that covered His head.

Really though—of all the information that I am concerned about in this story and all my unanswered questions, the fact that this piece of information gets written in scripture leaves me wondering.  I am sure there is some deep theological reason or fulfillment of some prophecy for the inclusion of this tidbit of info, but for just the average student of God's Word, it strikes me as strange that these details have been recorded in this amazing story.  John must have been a person who paid attention to detail, like a crime scene investigator.

My second funny thought is that Mary, confused, believes Jesus to be the gardener and says, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him and I will get Him”.  Did Mary think that she was going to carry Jesus body by herself? That is just like a person in grief to be nonsensical in their thinking.  I have been there and know how it works. This particular scene causes me to feel a sense of kindred spirit with Mary as I read her statement.

But seriously, I can’t even imagine the thrill of experiencing the revelation that the deepest grief you have ever experienced is immediately turned to joy as you realize that person that you believed to be dead is alive.  The horror of the crucifixion is assuaged as she sees Jesus restored.

One other particularly striking thing to me is that John 20:9 says, “They (the disciples) still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead”.  Sometimes I feel pretty slow to catch on to things that God is trying to teach me, but I am in good company the disciples were there too.  Somehow knowing that they also struggled to understand makes me feel normal.

This is a great journey—confusing, sorrowful, faith-challenging, joyous, and exciting journey.  I love Easter!  I love the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead, I love Jesus and I love that He is so patient with all of us as we struggle to comprehend what is just unfathomable.