“The tomb is empty”
“How could that be? Wait a minute! Didn’t he say that in three days he would arise? Is His resurrection what He was referring to when He said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ He was referring to himself, wasn’t he? We disregarded what did not seem relevant to us but was of cardinal importance to him.”
The indifference shown by those of the Lord’s time of his reference to his death and resurrection is disappointing but not surprising. How frequently we miss the really important things of life when we are trapped by the irrelevant. Easter gets lost in candy and eggs. The most important event in history is drowned out by the noise of the holiday. How can this happen?
Because a tomb was empty some 2000 years ago seems so irrelevant. We bring it to mind once a year and then set it aside for “more relevant” things. The miraculous and eternally significant event fade into the mundane because it has often been heard. We are used to it.
The singular event of the empty tomb and the resurrection shatters our complacency when we face our sins and the life beyond death. “Because he lives I can face tomorrow. Because he lives all cares are gone.” The empty tomb has impact when we think of our mortality.
Could it be that the full consideration of the empty tomb is disallowed by us because the consideration of our death is unpleasant? It is because of the empty tomb and in Christ Jesus that we may be comfortable with time passing.
The empty tomb is the only reconciliation between limited time and eternity.
“The tomb is empty. He is risen as He said.”
