The dying and rising of gods is not of Christian Origins. Stories like this appear all throughout mythologies in ancient times. What makes the story of Jesus’ dying and rising is that it really happened. No mythology here. God was actually at work in this one person, who lived in this one time frame, in this one location. He was real. He really did die on a Friday and was really raised again on the following Sunday. The faithful few didn’t realize this reality at first, and two of them, two women each by the name of Mary, went to the tomb on Sunday morning to morn, to grieve, and maybe even to pray. They were stunned, however, when, one at the time, they came face to face with an angel who told them that Jesus wasn’t in the grave, that He had “risen, just as He said” (Matt. 28:6). Upon hearing that the tomb was empty, they were instructed to “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead” (vs. 7). As they made their way to the disciples, Jesus “met them and greeted them” (vs. 9).
The angel was right; the two women went to the grave looking for Jesus whom they supposed would be buried. What they encountered at the grave shook them, stunned the disciples, and began a journey of God’s power and transformation that has reached us two thousand years later and half-a-world away. They went looking for a dead man but came away with the living Christ, “who was declared the Son of God with power [by the resurrection from the dead…”(Romans 1:4).
What makes this event even more remarkable is that it starts in such a human way. When death speaks we might not like it, but we bury our dead. That’s the way the world works. Then we encounter the living Jesus and know that something out of the ordinary has happened. Dead men are supposed to stay dead. However, Jesus is not just any man. He is the God-Man. He met the enemy of His creation on that enemy’s turf, and defeated that enemy, using His enemy’s own weapon against him – death.
The realities of life are so serious that we don’t just need a hero who takes the death we deserve. We need a Savior who can come down into the midst of our very real and broken lives, and establish there a stronghold of life. Death in the world awaits us all, and to deny it is a very foolish thing to do. However, our Savior is not buried away somewhere in an ancient graveyard. He died, that’s for sure. But, death could not hold Him. Death gave way to His sovereign life and today He lives, and because He lives we are invited into His very life where the love and mercy and grace of God invigorate our lives with a fullness that is rooted and grounded in a compassion that is beyond our comprehension. In His Life we live. Even death does not have to be the final word about us. After we die, there is one further word to be spoken and that word is LIFE.
John Newton had it right when he wrote in 1779
“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound…”
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