by Rev Steve Nickodemus

Not in this place!

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.  He has risen! He is not here.  See the place where they laid Him.”
Mark 16:6

I like to peruse old cemeteries, like this one at Mount Angel Abbey.  Sometimes I wander up and down the rows of tombstones, read the names of those buried there, and wonder about their lives.  Other times I am looking for a person in particular that I knew, and I will search up and down the rows until I find the grave.

However, the women who came to the tomb, on that first Easter, were disappointed in their search.  They had come to mourn, and adorn, the body and life of their beloved Lord Jesus.  There was a big problem, however.  He was not there!  He had risen from the dead and was going on ahead of them to Galilee!

Don’t you just hate it when you are all set on your plan for grieving the death and demise of Jesus and then He… rises from the dead?  It is enough to shake up your whole day, or whole life!

You see, if Jesus is raised, then everything is different from then on in your life.  Your fears, your values, your outlook toward God, and your eternity…all different!  If Jesus is not in the cemetery…then He is the Son of God, His death pays for my sin, and His rising from the dead means I will live eternally with Him.

Are you wandering through the cemetery of life feeling like there is no hope, meaning, or future?  Then hear this!  Jesus is risen from the dead! He is not here, and for all those who believe in Him there is life forever!  Don’t be alarmed. Don’t be afraid.  He is not here.  He is risen!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado