Tell His Disciples!
“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'” Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
(Mark 16:6-8)
When pain and heartache come, it’s easy to forget what we know to be true. The angel had come and rolled away the stone to show that Jesus had indeed risen! Fresh air and the morning light filled the tomb where He had been laid. Death had been conquered! A stone could not hold Him. Death could not hold Him. Overwhelmed with wonder, the women were told by the angel that Jesus was not there. He had risen! They were to go and tell the disciples and Peter! How precious of Jesus to single out His friend, Peter. Peter, the one who had betrayed Him. Peter, the one who had vowed to go to the death with his Lord and then turned and disowned Him three times. I can so feel his pain! How many times I have let the Lord down through my actions, or lack of them; or through my words, or lack of them! Yet Jesus remains faithful. Tell Beth!
Jesus is not surprised by our frailties and shortcomings–He expects it from flawed human flesh! Remember what Isaiah tells us:
All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:6-8)
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. (Isaiah 53:6)
Paul tells us in Romans:
There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. (Romans 3:10-12)
What God desires from us is to keep our accounts short. We must repent and turn back to Him when we fall. We must go back to the cross and to its power! Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians:
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel–not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:17-18)
In the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible the word translated “repent” is the Greek word Metanoeo meaning “to undergo a moral reorientation of the soul in which one acknowledges the error of his ways and turns toward the divinely prescribed way of truth and righteousness”. It is a turning from unbelief to a “reliance upon His forgiveness and favor.” We can never sin beyond God’s grace and mercy–we need only to go back to the cross. Jesus’ blood shed for us covers all sin–past, present and future! That is good news indeed!
I love the angel’s last line: “There you will see him, just as he told you.” God never changes. If He said it, He meant it!
Take It to Heart
We can stand on the promises of God–He will never let us down!
“I the LORD do not change.” (Malachi 3:6)
“He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind.” (1 Samuel 15:29)
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)
