Happy Easter, Dearest Friends!
The thing that bewildered the disciples about the death of Jesus was that he didn’t deserve to die. Even those who tried and convicted him admitted that he was blameless. Yet he died anyway. No wonder on that cloudless morning of the first Easter, there was a shout of victory in Jerusalem. God had delivered on His promise! One world was not enough, for one who deserved more.
Paul once declared, “If Christ be not risen from the dead, then we of all creation are most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:12-19). Paul was saying that if there is nothing beyond, then life in this world loses its meaning. Humankind will not long live constructively if its ultimate end is certain defeat.
It was Daniel Poling who told of his final visit with his mother out in Oregon. She was elderly and sick, and Poling felt he could not leave her. Yet he had to get back to his home in New York. His mother said, “Dan, go along. If I’m not here when you get back, you’ll know where to find me.” She wasn’t there when her son got back, but he said he knew where to find her.
Throughout the ages, people have asked the question, “If we die, shall we live again?” (Job 14:14). To imagine our loved ones gone forever would leave us unbearably lonely. If our dreams and efforts are doomed to final and ultimate defeat, then life loses its meaning. This is why we listen so carefully for a word about something more beyond.
A long time ago a man stood on an old hillside overlooking a beautiful lake. The people gathered around him and listened eagerly to him, and he told them, “There is a way to live forever. Follow me, and I will show you the way.” The people who heard him wondered if he were right. They saw him die and concluded that he was mistaken. But on that morning when the angel announced the resurrection, they knew he was right! Death was not the end. One world is not enough for God’s children.
There is still a world to come,
Bruce Jones,
Pastor Imagine Church
