The Season of Need

EASTER


Stage 4 Cancer.

A two-year old beaten to death by his mother’s boyfriend.

Sudan.

A church in Egypt.



This world is drenched in pain.  Once in a while, the candy coating of “I’m fine’s”

and forced smiles break and we are leveled by the sheer neediness of this world.



We are walking into “Holy Week”; the week leading up to the cross, where Jesus

took all this world’s brokenness and let it break Him.



Sometimes, on this side of the cross, it’s just too much.



Things we love and hold and believe in suddenly turn to death and we are left

looking at a broken and bloody Jesus.



The disciples.  They know; they understand.  They left all they knew about

themselves and let Him redefine their identities.  They watched Him speak to the

storm and it listened.  They watched Him heal the broken, restore sight and

sanity, raise the dead to life.  They saw Him take the small offering of a boy and

multiply it to feed thousands.  They had walked with Him, laughed with Him,

questioned Him and with each passing day found themselves really believing He

was the Messiah- the Promised One they had anticipated for always. They left

their homes, incomes, stability and reputations for Him.  And because He loved

them He warned them: “We are going to Jerusalem and everything that is written

by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.  He will be handed over to

the Gentiles.  They will mock Him, insult Him, spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. 

On the third day He will rise again.” (Luke 18:31-33)



But they didn’t understand.



And suddenly they were standing at the cross and everything they had believed in

was broken and bloody and covered in death.



They hid behind locked doors, denying they even knew Him.  Terrified, these men

who had witnessed miracles I cannot fathom, hid in fear because it was just too

much.



It’s what I do when things are too much.  Just this week I got news that made me

crawl in bed, cover my head and weep.  When my parents divorced, I spent weeks

lying in bed listening to sad music trying to muster the courage to face life again.  I

have friends who have buried marriages and husbands and babies and sometimes

it’s just too much to be on this side of the cross.



The earth quakes and rocks split; the sky goes dark and thunder roars.  Curtains

split and somewhere a voice howls,

“My God!  WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME????”



What do we do with our faith when it comes to this point?  What do we do with a

God that allows these things to happen?  We say He is love and we sing the He is

enough for us, but what about those times when He isn’t?  What do we do when

we come to Jesus and He just looks beaten and bloody and dead?



I think we give space for grief.  We run our fingers over the splintered wood of

those beams; we cry for what should have been.  We pound our fists against

heaven and throw all our questions to the only One who can take it; the only One

who has taken it.



We pour ourselves out to Him until we are spent. 



Then we look in the empty tomb. 



The men weren’t going to go.  They were still behind locked doors.  But the

women knew that things had to be done; life keeps happening and you keep

showing up.  Clothes need washing, people must be fed and sooner or later we

rise and do what is necessary.  That’s what these women did.  They showed up at

the tomb to care for the dead body of their Lord. 



He wasn’t there.



And as Mary stood outside that empty, empty tomb, weeping, bending over,

searching for something that was not there, two angels showed up.



It’s called hope.



She turned around and Jesus was there.  He was right in front of her but her grief

was so big she couldn’t even see Him…but He saw her.



“Mary.”



Once He spoke, she saw Him for who He was.



No longer bleeding and dying and covered with death.



This is the resurrected Jesus- this is where I put my faith.  The cross is so

important, but it’s on the other side of it we find life; the “Way, the Truth and the

Life.”   I serve a Jesus who is life itself.  He is the One with eyes like blazing fire. 

His voice is like the rushing waters.  He holds the stars in His hand and His face is

like the sun shining in all its brilliance. (Revelation 1:14-16)



“I am the Living One; I was dead and behold I am alive for ever and ever.”

 (Rev. 1:18)



He breathes life into spaces that were dead.  One day He will loose justice on this

earth and everything that was wrong and evil will be made right.  He will wipe

every tear from our eyes and take back His kingdom.  “The kingdom of this world

has become the kingdom of our Lord and of the Christ, and He will reign for ever

and ever.” (Revelation 11:15)



He will ride with the armies of heaven on white horses and avenge the atrocities

that brought us to the cross. (Revelation 19:14)



There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain; everything will be

made new. (Rev. 21:4-5)



One day every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the

sea, and all that is in them, will sing:



“To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory

and power, for ever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13)



This world is drenched in pain, sometimes drenched in death.  But when I look

beyond the cross and see the Jesus that beat death to take back what was His…



This, THIS  is Easter.



The call to leave our flesh, with everything it chases and desires, at the foot of the

cross and walk to the other side, letting eternity get under our skin and Jesus

renew our minds so we are actively looking for ways to bring His kingdom here,

now.  Looking for people to bring to the foot of the cross so they can see His love

stretched out and hear Him calling them to real life, real hope.



To let the heartbeat of heaven become our own and discover that our treasures

are not of this world- we can give ourselves over to things that last forever.



To drench ourselves in grace rather than death.



This Easter, let’s learn to walk with the Jesus of Revelation; to stop grieving like

people who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13) and start living like people chasing an

everlasting Hope.



“Amen.  Come Lord Jesus.



The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people.” (Rev. 22:20b-21)