He's Alive!

As we approach Easter, we hear the chant of Christians all over the world, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” But really….what difference does it make?

Dead God, living God…what difference does it make to me personally. Really. Every day. In real life.

Luke 24 gives the account. Three women went to the tomb with spices to anoint Jesus body. There was no body there, only two men in dazzling robes. “Jesus is not here…don’t you remember he said he would betrayed, crucified and rise from the dead the third day?”

Jesus appears to two men as they are walking the seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. He seems clueless to the events surrounding Passover.

“What are you discussing so intently? They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about what’s happened the last few days.”

They fill him in. Then he, Jesus, tells them how this man Jesus fits with all of scripture, book by book. He’s so interesting they ask him to join them for dinner. When he prays and breaks the bread , they look up, wonder filling their faces, they realize it’s Jesus. He disappears. They must have sprinted all the way back to Jerusalem, busted down the doors of the room where the disciples were hiding, jumped up and down and yelled, “HE DID IT!!! HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD!!!!”

Speechless, mouths hanging open, barely breathing, the disciples listen to the men’s account. Then Jesus appears in their midst. “Peace be with you,” he said. But the whole group was startled and frightened thinking they had seen a ghost!"

Heck yeah they did! They’d watched him beaten to a pulp, nailed to a cross, die an agonizing death and then watched as a soldier pierced his side with a sword to be sure he was dead. When a Roman soldier pronounced you dead? You were dead.

“Why are you frightened? Why are your hearts filled with doubt? Look at my hands and feet. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost because ghosts don’t have bodies as you see that I do.” He asked for something to eat and they gave him fish. He talked about all that had been written about him in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms. It clicked. This time, they got it.

They could not explain it. But it was undeniable. He was alive.

He said, “You are witnesses of all these things…but stay here until the Holy Spirit comes and you are filled with power from heaven.” They did. They were never the same again.

That he is a living God and active in the world today…in my heart, in my life, makes all the difference in the world when he becomes personal. Childhood cancer doesn’t become really personal until it’s your kid with leukemia. The fine print on the insurance policy doesn’t mean anything until your husband dies. Auto accidents and drunk drivers are just statistics until your daughter is hit head on by a drunk driver. The war is just words in a newspaper, brief clips on the news until your son gives you that last hug and walks down the concourse to get on a plane to Afghanistan. Then it becomes very, very personal.

Religion is just another meeting, another set of rules, another group of people you can meet with every Sunday for 60 years and the One they talk about is just as remote on year one as he is on year sixty.

It has to become personal. How it becomes personal is unique for each of us. The commonality is that we know beyond a shadow of doubt that he lives and he speaks and he tailors the Word written 2000 years ago to speak to my heart whether man or woman, American, Chinese, Samoan, Chilean, Eskimo, to direct my life, give me hope, give me direction, guidance, security. He fills me with his love, surrounds me with his everlasting arms.

I become a witness not just to Bible stories but to his story in the journey of my life and it is strangely similar to other stories throughout history.

“For God who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”

Jesus said, “Stay here until the Holy Spirit comes.” Jesus lives in our hearts through the Holy Spirit when we ask him to be our Saviour, our Lord . As a result, we should be able to articulate clearly and our lives should be a living demonstration of what an incredible difference He has made to us personally.

God never indwells man….and nothing happens. Everything changes. We cannot explain it…but it’s undeniable.

Yep, He’s alive!