“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
We very often look for things in the wrong places. We have in our minds an expectation, a notion, a belief about what is before us and what we need to do next and where we’re headed. We pick up our tools and walk in the direction we think we should go only to find that what we expected isn’t there. In the verse above, some women had grabbed anointing spices and headed to the tomb in which Jesus was buried to prepare his body in the proper ceremonial way. They had seen him crucified and dead and fully expected him to stay that way. After all, that’s what happened to people when they died: they stayed dead. He had said he would rise, but what did that even mean? They saw him on the cross, bleeding and human as any other man. Dead like any other man.
But they were wrong.
The thing is, people still think He’s dead. We talk about Jesus in the past tense. We talk about him as a historical figure. “Jesus was a good teacher.” And so on. But He’s not dead. If Jesus were dead, I would not be who I am today. And any true Christian would say the same. Becoming a Christian does not mean accepting Christ’s teachings. There is just no way to do that. Jesus’ teachings do not allow for a person to live by a set of platitudes. He didn’t teach a set of do’s and do not’s. He didn’t create a system for people to follow. In fact, that’s one of the most frustrating aspects of the Christian world today. Want to know why there are so many brands of churches? It’s because He didn’t come and lay down a set of rules.
So what did He do? He said, “May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent me. I have given them the glory You have given Me. May they be one as We are one. I am in them and You are in Me. May they be made completely one, so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.” John 17:21-23
Jesus didn’t give us a system: He gave us Himself. We are created to be one with Him, to be united in a bond of love. His name was called Emmanuel, God With Us. In Him is life and when we are in Him, we have life, true life. That is the inheritance of the believer. We enter into a bond of love with Jesus and He gives us true life!
If anyone looks for a dead Jesus, that Jesus doesn’t exist. True Christians don’t believe in a set of events that happened 2000 years ago. We believe in the living events that happen right now. If anyone has left the church, that person never really knew Jesus. Once you meet Jesus, you can never un-know Him. He is with us and in us and to deny Him would be to deny our own existence.
He is my Rock and my Salvation, the Source of my strength and peace and joy. All good things come from Him and He makes all things new. That includes me and it can include you. The day I stopped expecting the wrong things and looking in the wrong places was the first day of real life for me. I invite you to know true life too.