3-09-12

Hindsight

It’s Easter Monday morning and the staff is DESERVEDLY taking today off.  The offices are empty and I’m sitting at my desk writing.  My wife is at work so I thought I’d take some time to catch up!  I’m reflecting back over what a great day GateWay enjoyed yesterday, Easter.  It’s really not about the number of people that came.  It’s not about the number of decisions that were made. It’s not about the new people with whom we connected.  Those things are important but they’re not vital.  What is vital is honoring the name of Jesus and celebrating his resurrection and victory over the grave.

An old story that I cut from my sermon yesterday goes like this:

A father was driving his pickup slowly down a country road on a warm spring morning with his young son buckled into the seat beside him. Because of the heavy rain the thin two-lane road was overgrown by the tall wild flowers.  Since the road had no shoulder the flowers grew right to the edge and even brushed against the side of the truck.  The boy could reach out and touch them if he so chose.  He didn’t because he’d had a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting last year so he kept his hands safely inside the pickup.

But as fate would have it, a bee flew in the driver’s window.  The boy was on the verge of panic when the quick-handed father nabbed the bee in mid flight.  The boy had just started to relax when the father then opened his hand and released the bee in the truck.  “Don’t worry!” Dad said, “Look at my hand, the stinger is right here.”  For the boy the bee was now just a harmless insect like all the others.

What changed the disciples as they gathered locked and barricaded in that room on Easter morning?  The appearance of Jesus, they were OVERJOYED!  What gave them courage to speak to multitudes in his name?  Fear of death no longer held them in it’s grip.  Jesus had been there and successfully returned. 

Paul writes, “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?” I Corinthians 15:54-55

I hope Easter impresses on your heart what it impressed on the heart of the Apostle Paul.  We mortals will, as Jesus did, take on immortality one day.  We need not fear death.

I hope it wasn’t the music, the preaching, the fun or the people who impressed you yesterday.  I hope you were impressed by the fact that Jesus Christ conquered the grave and he deserves every ounce of honor and adoration that our feeble hearts and souls can pour out to him.  He really, really IS risen…He really, really IS risen indeed!

God bless you all,