Monday - the Resurrection

Prayer:  Our hope is in the Lord God Almighty.  Our refuge is in the Son.  Our protection is in the Holy Spirit.  Glory to the Three in One.  Amen.

Read:  Luke 24: 36 – 43

As the disciples were talking,  Jesus appeared amongst them and said, “Peace be with you!”  The disciples are startled and frightened.  They think they have seen a ghost.   Yet Jesus tells them to look at his hands and his feet.  It is not a ghost but it is the risen Christ.

Jesus then asks them if they have anything to eat.   The disciples give him a piece of broiled fish.  Jesus takes the fish and eats it in their presence proving to the disciples that he is real and alive.

How often do we see something and don’t believe what our eyes have seen?  Jesus is right in their midst,  but the disciples are scared spitless.   The disciples had listened to Jesus’ teaching about the Resurrection.  The disciples had seen the healing of those who needed healing.  Yet when it came right down to it,  the disciples were having a very difficult time with the whole concept of the Resurrection.

What do we believe about the resurrection today?   The Living Faith  3.4 – 3.5.2  says that “Jesus is the Mediator through whom God has come to us and through whom we come to God.  Christ died for our sins.  The innocent one bore our condemnation on the cross  he suffered and was put to death for the sin of the world.  God’s  reconciling act in Jesus Christ is a mystery which the Scriptures describe as the sacrifice of a lamb, a shepherd’s  life given for his sheep, atonement by a priest.  It is also the innocent dying for the guilty, the ransom of a salve, payment of a debt, and victory over the powers of evil.  Such expressions interpret the love of God revealing the gravity, cost, and sure achievement of our Lord’s work.  Yet that love we cannot fully explain. God’s grace,  received by faith alone, pardons and justifies, redeems and reconciles us.  Jesus suffered, died, and was buried, but God raise him from the dead.  Risen and ascended, he is alive now, the living Lord.   His resurrection means that our faith is not empty, that final victory is assured over all evil powers which destroy and deform life, and that death, the last enemy, is conquered.”  (Living Faith: A statement of Christian Belief.   Wood Lake Books, Ltd.  Presbyterian Church in Canada, 1984.  Section 3.4 – 3.5.2).

His resurrection means that the faith of the disciples was not empty!     His resurrection means that our faith is not empty.  Hallelujah!

Prayer:  Hallelujah Lord God of Hosts.  Heaven and earth are full of Your Glory.  Glory to God in the Highest and peace be to those on earth.  Amen.