Empty is not a good thing in many situations as you would say: 'the cup being half full or half empty'. The dictionary defines "empty" as "containing nothing." You know the feeling when get into your car to head off to work or school or some place where you're in a hurry and look down at the fuel gauge and it shows empty.
Easter is about a tomb that was supposed to be full, but was empty. Nobody expected it to be empty. But the tomb of Jesus being empty was good news for the world. In Matthew 27:61 We read that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary looked on as Joseph of Arimathea sealed Jesus in the tomb and then went away. The two women were left alone, their hearts full of resignation and despair. Jesus had been buried, with the tomb sealed and guarded by a watch of Roman soldiers. Then they departed for home. Resolved to honor one last time the man they had followed, they prepared embalming spices and perfumes for the Lord’s body. And on the third day, early morning, when it was still dark, the two women went to the tomb. They saw the stone was removed and the body was gone; the tomb was empty! The women didn't expect the tomb to be empty. The apostles could not believe it.
Resurrection was not in their vocabulary that day, hence it seemed so unrealistic. Resurrection lies outside the realm of ordinary proof. But sometimes proof can come from something neither visible nor understood. For example, Albert Einstein predicted that a large source of gravity could actually "bend" light rays to change direction. Later, demonstrating this change of direction by using new techniques like radio telescopes and gravitational lenses, scientists proved Einstein's theory that light rays do bend when pass near large masses like the sun.
The empty grave of Jesus was filled with power that changed the direction of history, the direction of millions of lives and direction of future for all humanity. The empty grave was full of power that conquered sin and death. The empty tomb still stands today as an unanswerable, but convincing proof that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. It became the cornerstone of the Christian faith. "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile." 1 Corinthians 15:17 (NRSV). Jesus went into that tomb for us once and for all; so that we could live again.
The power of the empty tomb removed the stone that was set at the opening. The stone was was rolled away--not so Jesus could get out, but that we may look into that empty tomb and say like Paul
"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 15:55)
Gary Meader, Missouri writes in upper room devotional, "Over 40 years ago, when my oldest daughter Hope was less than three weeks old, her pediatrician told us, “Stay in town. Hope won’t live through the night.” (We lived more than 50 miles from the hospital, over rural roads.). Hope had been born with a flawed digestive tract. She did not tolerate any nourishment, not even her mother’s milk. Her doctor had tried all the cures — soy formula, meat-based formula. Nothing worked. Hope had lost too much weight. She was dying. The next morning my wife was too distraught to go to the hospital. Wracked with sorrow, tears blinding me, I rode with a seminary brother who tried to convince me that even in the valley of death God is with us. I would not be consoled. I went into the hospital expecting news of Hope’s death and could not understand what I saw: Her pediatrician was giddy with happiness. “It’s a medical miracle!” he gushed. “Hope is alive!” Every Easter I relive the feelings of that day long ago as I think about the two women who went to see the body of Jesus. When we expect death, God gives us life, When we see no way, God gives a new way, When we are afraid, God sends his angel to tell us “Be not afraid.” Jesus is alive! In the face of deaths large and small, Easter promises us life
The empty grave was full of power that it changed history. There was transformation that took place in society when the weekly day of worship for many shifted from Saturday to Sunday, the sacred Sabbath was replaced by the worship of Sunday, the day of resurrection. Sunday became the first day of the week.
The resurrection of Jesus changed the calendar. The current calendar we have starts with the birth of Jesus. Sure Jesus' exact birth date might be off by a few years but the point is the calendar is based on His birthday. Of course some people have tried to eliminate Jesus from the calendar by changing it to CE (Current Era) and BCE (Before Current Era) but the true calendar remains. Christianity, drew a line in the sands of time, so much so that time itself, as we choose to count it, is subject to His birth. We live in the year of our Lord (Anno Domini) while Alexander the Great died 323 years before Christ (B.C.). Christ Jesus is the center of our dating system, even if our abbreviations are changed in the name of political correctness.
The greatest missionaries and explorers in our history went out in the name of Jesus Christ, to spread the message of Jesus because of the power they experienced in their lives. David Livingstone helped end the slave trade, while opening up Africa to the modern world. William Carey brought the first printing press to India and he ended the ritual murder of women on their husband’s funeral pyre. Mother Teresa went to the streets of Calcutta to save the homeless and the orphans. In the West, William Booth founded the Salvation Army to help the poor and impoverished, and George Meuller and Dr. Barnardo opened children’s homes in Jesus name, to save children from the street. William Wilberforce ended the slave trade because he brought the message of Jesus into politics. In the U.S. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. were inspired by the message of Jesus to fight for equality. In South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela ended Apartheid. The power of an empty tomb changed the social systems.
Jesus' teaching influenced higher education. The 'Weselys' started the reformation in the Anglican church that led to the founding of hundreds of schools and colleges and hospitals. The love for Jesus and His teaching has led to a system of institutions of higher learning, which later became know as Cambridge, Harvard and Oxford universities. Well at least they were once dedicated to Biblical teachings.
Historian Philip Schaff described the overwhelming influence which Jesus had on subsequent history and culture of the world. "This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science...he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times."
The empty grave is full of power that changed lives and still continues to change lives. And at that moment when they found the grave empty, none of them knew the power the empty tomb would have in their lives or in this world. The resurrection of Jesus Christ brought dramatic changes in the lives of his followers and, soon after, in the lives of thousands upon thousands of others all the way down to the church today. All of his disciples gave their lives for the sake of their master.
The empty grave of Jesus is full of hope for the future. The tombs of Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, Karl Marx, and every other religious founder and philosophical genius still hold and will hold the remains of their occupants until they go back to the dust The body of Jesus was there for only three days, and then, having been resurrected, glorified, and immortalized, He appeared to His disciples, showing Himself to be "alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3).
One day, all the graves will be emptied! Jesus said to those who are His followers: "Because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:19). He has promised to return some day (perhaps today!), and "if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him....and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17).
In that great day, all made possible by the Resurrection of Christ, the graves of every believer in Christ of every age and place will be emptied, and we shall all receive glorified bodies like that of Christ Himself. "We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2; note also Philippians 3:20-21). "Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).
On the first Easter morning, there was an empty cross, and empty tomb and empty burial clothes. It is the very fact that each of these is empty that assures us that God’s promises are real. Because they couldn’t hold Jesus, because he couldn’t be contained by the cross, the tomb, or even his burial clothes, we can be sure of the fullness of God’s promises in our lives. Jesus is alive! In the face of deaths large and small, terrorism and hatred, violence and evil around us , the empty tomb of Easter promises us hope full of promises.
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