This piece was written for the April issue of the Lee Creek Baptist Church newsletter.
Across from the church where I grew up, there was a cemetery on the corner. I remember passing it one Easter Sunday on our way to service–on one of those sharp, spring mornings when the light is strong. The tombstones were nearly glittering in all that light, and while it sounds strange to say this about a graveyard, I thought it looked beautiful. The promise of 1 Thessalonians 4:16 came to mind, that “the dead in Christ will rise first” and the resounding crescendo of 1 Corinthians 15 that mocks death with its music:
“’Death is swallowed up in victory’
‘O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting’”
(1 Cor. 15:54-55)?
I’ve stood by more than a few gravesides in the last year, where death seemed so gritty and real I could reach out and touch it. But what was even more palpable was the great truth of the resurrection, like the flowers opening in bloom over those graves.
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firtsfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).
The resurrection of Christ–the event that bent history into one, great upturn–has direct bearing on our lives in the present. What I mean to say is that the truth we rejoice in on Easter Sunday is for Monday morning, too. It brings hope to life’s brightest days and the bitter gravesides, too.
In Acts 2, Peter says of Christ that “God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.” Then, he quotes David’s words in Psalm 16:
“I saw the Lord always before me,
for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
my flesh also will dwell in hope”
(Acts 2:25-26, see Ps. 16:8-9).
David looked through history to the hope of that morning when Christ stepped from the grave, and it gave him hope for his day. It made him glad. It sheltered him from the storms of life. It eased his anxiety and swallowed up his fears.
The same is true for you and I. Christ’s resurrection offers hope for our anxieties and illnesses, our doubts, decisions, and disappointments—just as it broke into the grief of Christ’s disciples. After His resurrection, Jesus said things to His followers like, “Do not be afraid” and “Peace be with you” (Matt. 28:10, Jn. 20:19), assuring them that the resurrection makes peace possible. Hope becomes real. Joy for today is there, just beyond the open grave, where Jesus lies no more.
“He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” ~ Matthew 28:6
The resurrection has something to offer you, dear Christian, today. It may be on Easter morning or by the graveside of someone you loved, but you can say with the Scriptures, My flesh also will dwell in hope.
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