The KNEXN

Jesus is now dead. He has been buried by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus in a borrowed tomb. What do you do now? It’s the Sabbath Day and all you can do is sit around and think about what has just taken place! You can’t work to keep your mind off of it. So it is no wonder that John 20 starts off with Mary Magdalene being at the tomb before the sun even began to rise. This woman beat the roosters out of bed! And what does she see as she arrives to the tomb? The stone had been rolled away from the entrance! And not only that but she has discovered that Jesus’ body is missing! What’s her first thought? Somebody has taken Jesus! What’s next? How could this have happened? Crucifying Him wasn’t enough? Now they have done something with His body! So she does what any person would do…she runs to tell the other followers what has taken place. Now you have to understand something here before we go any further. Jewish culture in the days of Jesus did not favor women very well (with the exception of Christianity-there are many woman mentioned throughout the New Testament and they were more esteemed). It’s not much better even in our own today. So it would be really hard to believe a woman’s story, especially of this magnitude. Not only that but think about who this woman is…Mary Magdalene who had seven demons cast out of her (Luke 8:2-3). Can you imagine what the disciples thought as she told this message to them? “This woman is nuts! She must have those demons again because she has lost her mind,” could possibly be what they thought. And the pursuit is on as John and Peter runs to the tomb to confirm her words. Sure enough…the stone is rolled away and the tomb is empty. And to top it off, the burial clothes are laying there. John 20:8 says that Peter and John “saw and believed.” I don’t think they believed the resurrection had taken place, I think they believed Mary’s story now. They have saw it with their own eyes. Hence John 20:9 reads, “For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.” Aren’t we the same way? Some things are just hard to believe or understand unless we see it for ourselves. We must have hard evidence…proof or we just write it off and go on about our business. God had used a woman, who had seven demons cast out of her, to be the first person to proclaim, “HE IS RISEN!” We are faced with the same decision as Peter and John had…do we believe her story? If we say yes then we are held accountable with what we do with it. If we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ then we must act on it. We must be clothed with Him and walk daily with Him so that we can go to heaven when our life is over here on earth. If we write her story off and say, “I don’t believe it really happened” then we will still be held accountable someday…Give your life to Christ and live for Him before it’s too late. Don’t take a chance on eternity. There is no turning back or second chances after you leave this world. Randy