March Bible Focus
The Angel said to the women “Do not be afraid, for I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, he has risen just as he said”
In this day and age people seem to becoming more and more sceptical with regard to the things that people say. It appears that we are no longer willing to take people at their word, promises it seems are like the proverbial “pie crusts” made to crumble. We have perhaps had our faith dented by too many occasions when we have been promised a finishing date from a builder, for example, that has overrun by a number of days or weeks or the promised delivery of some item or other that has simply never materialised, the promised get together that has never happened and so on. Consequently we now tend to take all promises with a pinch of salt.
How refreshing it is then to hear of a promise that has been fulfilled “... he has risen just as he said” The women who went to the tomb on that first Easter morning had either forgotten our Lord’s words to them or they had always found them to be too fantastic to be true, as a result they were completely unprepared for finding the tomb empty. Many people in today’s world find it difficult to believe in our Lord’s promises for similar reasons, these along with their experience of the human propensity to make promises they are unable to keep.
We are in a much better position however, than those women at the tomb for we have much more of the story than they had. We know, for instance, that everything Jesus said would happen did happen. Jesus told the disciples that he would be killed, he was, he said he would rise again on the third day, he did. When he said he would ascend to the Father in heaven, it happened just as he had told them and when he said he would send the Holy Spirit, he was once again true to his word. Why is it then that people are still reluctant to trust our Lord’s other promises to us?
Promises such as
“Do not be afraid, for I am with you” and
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” and
“I will be with you until the end of the age.”
Just three of the wonderful promises Jesus made when he walked this Earth. It can only be that they simply seem too good to be true, which of course they do, but, nevertheless they can be trusted.
The women at the tomb saw and believed because of their experience of the risen Lord, and they ran to tell the disciples, that the unbelievable had happened, Jesus had risen from the dead. The greatest reason that we should believe, is because of our own experience of the risen Lord and we need to share those experiences with others, just as the women did. In the sceptical world in which we live, where many are searching for something in which they can trust.
We must tell them, Jesus is the answer. Why?
Because he is risen,
just as he said.