Martin Luther said it well. “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”
As we experience spring every year, we are reassured we will enjoy life after death. I have just returned from a road trip across the state of Arkansas and Tennessee. Bursting out in glorious colorful newness on every lawn and roadside stretch of land we drove by were redbud trees, dogwood trees, tulip trees, forsythia bushes, tulips and daffodils. They are delightful brush strokes from the Life-Giver on the tableau of our landscapes in spring declaring,”He lives!”
The resurrection is real. Our loved ones will be raised through Jesus to live again with resurrection bodies as youthful and perfect as His glorious body was when he triumphed over the tomb where His disciples had lain Him outside Jerusalem. Such Good News– you can ultimately eliminate your own fear of dying with this truth. Since Christ is described as “raised from the dead and the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” ( I Corinthians 15:20) we shall experience resurrection too if we are His. And becoming His involves simply believing and confessing that God raised Jesus from the dead.
David P Scaer, a theological scholar, asserts “Christ’s resurrection was not an isolated event occurring only to one person in history, but a cosmic event.” He draws special significance from Paul’s language that” Jesus was dead, but became the first among many who would sleep. “Christ’s submitting Himself to what otherwise would have been an eternal death (i-e., a death for which there is no solution) has changed that death into a temporary sleep for Christians.”
Hallelujah! Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed!
Today as I was rereading the Gospel account of Jesus’ last days, I discovered a strange person in the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus received a kiss of betrayal from Judas. I had never focused on this young man in the account Mark gives us of the last night of Jesus’ life on earth. Mark 14:51,52 says, “And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: and he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.”
Who is this boy who approached Jesus but then fled when the Temple officials tried to grab him? Why was he only covered by a linen cloth? Some commentators suggest it may be Mark the author of this book inserting himself into the scene. But that doesn’t make sense to me. Nor does the idea it may be John the beloved disciple. But why would he be naked?No, the answer lies in the Greek word for “linen cloth.” It is a specific term for burial shroud. The rich Jews buried their dead wrapped in expensive linen cloths fabricated in Egypt. So my guess is that when Jesus announced, “I am He!” to the guards who came to seize him in the garden after Judas identified him, His declaration not only knocked a band of beefy soldiers down, but His presence in power raised a boy from the dead. I think the Spirit of God included this resurrected child in the scene of Mark’s account to say that anything can happen when we believe in the Resurrection of our Lord.
I am so glad this incident was captured for us in Mark’s Gospel. Imagine a resurrection in a garden as a precursor and foreshadowing of all the tombs that would ultimately be emptied when Jesus surrendered Himself to the flogging that would follow, and the taunting as a crown of thorns was pressed down on His brow, and the cross leading to His death—– and Resurrection!
Enjoy this glorious season. Spring is full of new life and resurrection as every bulb buried deep in the earth releases sleeping flowers and every lifeless branch explodes in bright blossoms of every hue. He is speaking to us. Life has swallowed up death and the grave has been emptied of dread and fear. Remember the boy who was raised by Jesus’ shout of triumph. “I am that I am,” the Son of God announced. The boy following Christ got away from the legalists and nay sayers. He dropped his burial shroud and gamboled away. You will too one day. Death is not able to hold His disciples down. We are now alive in Him. We have been made partakers of His resurrection. We shall live and never die. Hallelujah!
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lindamusings 