A Morning's Surprise

A Morning’s Surprise          

By John W. Vander Velden

Imagine you were one of those that took care of the details. There’s always something that needs to be done and somebody’s GOT TO DO IT. Maybe no one asked you to. Maybe because everyone knew someone ALWAYS took care of the details. You never sought the lime light. You didn’t need any kind of honor. You hadn’t consider it a big deal, you just helped take care of the details. You helped with the minor stuff, or at least you considered it minor stuff.

But this morning it was a bit different.

He was more than a friend, the man that is on your mind this morning. You rise early. The sun is just now breaking the horizon. You walk with another through the wet grass hurrying. He had not lasted long hanging there, and yet those hours seemed an eternity. That was Friday, and things were rushed...then. The Sabbath starts at sundown. There are rules that MUST be followed. There were procedures, proper things that MUST be done. But there wasn’t time Friday.

You think of how fortunate someone donated a new tomb. And your friend had been taken there. His body is waiting and details needed to be done.

You were not considered among his inner most circle, but that didn’t mean you hadn’t been near. It didn’t mean he didn’t know you...or love you. Because you know he did.

There had been political wrangling going on. You had no idea of the things set in motion. Of Roman Soldiers sent to guard a tomb that has Pilot’s seal. If you did perhaps you would not have been wondering how the great stone that blocked the entrance could be moved. For that was a large part of your morning’s talk.  

But you were shocked when in the early light of that morning and saw that the stone had been rolled aside.

Now what would your reaction be. Would you have stopped and said, “well, I think this is close enough.” Or would curiosity have drawn you forward. Now remember you haven’t had two thousand years and the gospel reports to guide your actions, to shape how you would react facing this surprise of the morning.

The event is recorded in all four gospels and though there are slight differences the core of the story remains constant. Those that came did not expect to find an empty tomb. How could they. They had witnessed the crucifixion, seen the centurion pierce their friend’s side. You had no doubt that he was dead. And after all you were just someone that took care of the details.

What thoughts would have passed through your head...right then, those first few moments? Grave robbers? Perhaps. But I know the concept of your dear friend returning to life would not likely been you’re your first thought. It certainly wouldn’t have been mine.

But we are familiar with the gospel stories, and in them, you or one of the others that had come that early Sunday morning, saw something remarkable. Imagine how you would respond to facing one or more men in brilliant white? Would you accept their words that your dear friend, Jesus of Nazareth, was alive? Could your mind comprehend the truth so plainly told? Could you accept that with Jesus the unfeasible was not really impossible?  Did your mind unravel the things Jesus had told you, to recognize that he had indeed risen?

Did that morning’s surprise fill you with dread...or fill you with joy? Or both?

But you were not there that morning, were you? No, you, me, and everyone have had those two thousand years and the accounts in each of the gospels to teach us. It is Easter once again, and the light of the resurrection has been shown into the hearts of believers innumerable. And because we believe we are not faced with the morning’s surprise, except the improbability that God would sacrifice His Son for the likes of us.

That is the biggest surprise of my morning...today...and every morning. That God loved me that much...loved me just as I am.

So on this Easter, an Easter different than any we have experienced. Take time to read the gospel, take time to pray, take time contemplate the infinite vastness of our God and the boundlessness of His love.

For Jesus remains alive. He lives. Today, tomorrow, and forever.

He saves each of us in ways we cannot understand. And it’s OK that we don’t understand the whole of it. For the surprise on that Easter morning verifies the truth. The truth that Jesus, is the Son of God. And in that truth we know, Jesus is the only person that could, as unfeasible as it might seem, rescue us.

And He has!

Have a blessed Easter,

John

(800 Words) 4-10-2020