Heaven breaking through: An Easter Meditation on Matthew 28

 

Christians live under constant scrutiny of their beliefs by outsiders who ridicule or dismiss the central tenets of their faith.  And no Christian belief is more attacked and ridiculed, than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  From the time of the Apostles down to our own day, from the Pharisees of Jerusalem, to the Roman Pagans, to the various atheistic philosophers, the evolutionists, and the secular humanists, the resurrection of Jesus presents the greatest opportunity for derision.  Who, after all, has ever seen anyone raised from the dead?  Who has ever beaten death, and managed to live forever?  It’s just ridiculous from the outsider’s perspective, that anyone can be dead for three days, and of their own power and authority, rise again.

But what does such ridicule reveal?  Hearts of unbelief, anger, and pride.  The heart that ridicules the resurrection of Jesus refuses to believe the eye-witness testimony of hundreds of contemporary people with nothing to gain and everything to lose—not least of which were the Apostles, who wrote down their testimony, suffering and dying for it.  The resurrection of Jesus is one of the most well attested events of antiquity, with more witnesses and documentation, than we have of most of the Roman Ceasars (whose persons and acts few debate.)  And if all the contemporary witnesses with nothing to gain were not enough, the preceding 1500 years of recorded history from Moses through the Prophets, predicted Jesus’ advent, suffering, death, and resurrection.  God had been telling the world what He was going to do, and when He did it, He left no room for debate.  To deny the resurrection of Christ, is to irrationally deny the witness of history, with a willful unbelief that simply doesn’t want to believe God.

As for anger and pride, they are rooted deep in the human experience.  We hold ourselves sovereign, captain of our own ship, with all our “inalienable rights.”  We delude ourselves into thinking we created ourselves, and control our own destiny.  But the reality behind our pride, is that we know we didn’t create ourselves, and we were given life through our parents without ever having been consulted about it.  And when we die, and our soul is ripped from our flesh with our last haggard breath, we will not be consulted or given a vote on how that shall proceed, either.  We may pretend that we’re in control from our birth to our death, but even that fairly tale doesn’t withstand much scrutiny, as the older we get, the more we see the hands and influence of many others upon our supposedly sovereign lives.  And so, under our self-deluded pride, lies an anger against God.  We want to be sovereign, and we are not.  We want to be our own gods, and we cannot even control our birth and death, let alone the moments in between.  We know that we do not have the power to keep up our delusion, and Jesus’ demonstration of laying down His life only to take it back up again, shows us for the weaklings we are.  Jesus’ resurrection shows us that He really is God, and we really aren’t.

Jesus’ resurrection cuts us to our quick, because it reveals our own failures and weakness, our slavery to sin, death, the devil, and our ultimate well deserved end in hell.  Jesus’ resurrection shows us that He is the Author of Life, the Creator, the Beginning and the End… and that we are none of these things.  Jesus’ resurrection pierces our pride, assaults our unbelief, and forces us to stand exposed before God our Maker.  Here we see who we really are, and who God really is.

But for all the terror of this revelation, of God breaking through our delusions and our evil, He brings something else with Him that we so desperately need.  We cannot save ourselves from death and hell, but He can.  We cannot bring about peace on earth, but He can.  We cannot govern our beginning, middle, and end, but He can.  All the things we secretly fear because we are too weak, corrupt, and delusional, He has shown He can conquer.  As Jesus’ rises from the grave, He declares to all of heaven and earth that nothing is beyond His power.  Every enemy of mankind He has conquered—even for a mankind that ridicules and derides Him.

And for you and I, this is very good news.  For as He rises from death to life by His own omnipotent power, He speaks a Word of peace and reconciliation to us.  To us, who struggle with unbelief, pride, anger, and all the host of evil vice, He gives a Word of forgiveness written in His own most precious Blood.  To us, who deserve nothing but death and hell, He gives a Word of salvation and life.  To us, enslaved by the devil and our own sinful passions, He gives a Word of freedom and victory.  Jesus Christ, the Eternal King of Glory, Victor Supreme over every wicked enemy, extends to every man, woman, and child His gracious reconciliation, mercy, grace, peace, and love.  Not only has our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated His power over sin, death, the devil and hell, but in His victory He brings us the gift of His Everlasting Gospel.

So even now, in these latter days, when the world ridicules and mocks the resurrection of Jesus, the Church stands forth as witness.  For we live in His resurrection life, and by grace through faith in Him and His Vicarious Atonement, we stand in His victory over death and the grave.  Let the devil howl as he will—he is defeated.  Let death and hell quake and rattle all they will—they are broken.  Let the world mock and ridicule in all its delusional fervor—it is overcome.  For we know that the means of our salvation, Jesus’ death and resurrection, are written in the Eternal Word of the Father, vouchsafed to us by the power of His Holy Spirit.  To we sinners who live by His grace, the resurrection of Jesus stands for all time and eternity as the promise and the sign of our own victory over sin and death—and it is the Gospel we shall show forth to the whole world, that all might believe and live in Jesus.  Amen.