“I tell you the truth,
today you will be with me in paradise “
(Luke 23:43)
Reflection:
The second relevance of the open and empty tomb is this. Death cannot have us or hold us.
It is a brief moment in our journey with the Lord. So brief that as we encounter Him face to face we find Him not in the tomb but in ‘the garden’ beyond it. He who has overcome the power of sin and death is eternally alive – and we, as believers, are an inseparable part of His Life.
- “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26)
No matter what may happen to our earthly bodies in death our spirits leave them and find their joy complete in the presence of our Lord and God. He has taught us that
- “He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:32)
As Billy Graham once said
‘All over the world, churches are filled with worshipers
because there is an empty tomb in Jerusalem’
Christ is alive and, therefore, so are we. Our Lord does not have to rescue us from death and an enclosed tomb. Death cannot claim us – and the tomb is only an open passage now filled with His eternal Light flooding in from beyond it.
Response:
“I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39)
Prayer:
Lord God, write Your truths in my heart and let them live and grow there to Your glory. Amen
———————-
The Soaring Eagle 