We finish the tradition of 40 days of Lent-related devotionals.
Sharing "Journey to the Cross" by Paul David Tripp.
***********************************************************************The empty tomb stands as your guarantee of help today and gives you hope for what is to come.
Life in this fallen world is hard. It can be hope-defeating and discouraging. Sometimes it looks as if the good guys are losing and the bad guys are winning. Unexpected visitors enter your door, bringing the pain of various kinds of loss with them. Things you thought you could depend on fail you, and the promises of people you thought you could trust fail you. Our lives right here, right now, are a mix of joys and sorrows. It’s frustrating how complicated things can be. Grief is an all-too-frequent visitor, and anger often bubbles up inside us.
The Bible gives us three reasons for the hardships of life that we all experience, whether in momentary frustrations or in prolonged seasons of pain and loss.
1. The World
The Bible has much to say about the world we all live in, but it warns us that the place that is our present address is dramatically broken and not functioning as the Creator intended. In Romans 8, Paul says our world is “groaning” as it waits for redemption (Romans 8:22). You groan when you’re in pain, you groan when you’re frustrated, you groan when you’re discouraged. Everything around us is not as it was meant to be. The world around you is like a car you need to get from point A to point B, but it has mechanical difficulties. It doesn’t do well what it was created to do, so you have to face the daily frustration of wondering what will happen next. Each trip you take is marked with a bit of worry, and often your trips are interrupted by yet another mechanical failure. Such is the world we live in.
2. The Flesh
When the Bible talks about the flesh, it’s not talking about our physical bodies but rather our fallen nature, that is, our struggle with sin. Yes, we have been forgiven. Because of what Christ has done, God views us as righteous, and sin is no longer our master. It is vital to remember that the presence of sin within us still remains and is being progressively eradicated by sanctifying grace. Sin is in us and all around us. Marriage would be dramatically easier if every husband and wife were sin-free. The same would be true of friendship, parenting, the workplace, government, your neighborhood, the church, the world of entertainment, education, and the list could go on. Sin complicates everything in our lives. Many of our daily frustrations and disappointments are the result of the presence of sin in us and in the people around us.
3. The Devil
The apostle Paul ends his practical instructions in Ephesians 6 by reminding us that we live in the midst of a great spiritual war. Our struggle is not really with people, places, and things. No, what we wrestle with every day are principalities and powers, “cosmic powers over this present darkness... spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). There really is a great, dark, deceitful enemy who prowls around like a hungry lion, seeking to devour us. Life is hard because life is war. All the things that we do every day and all our relationships are made more difficult because they take place in the middle of a spiritual war. There is a tempter, a deceiver, who will mess with your faith, seeking to instill doubt of God’s goodness, faithfulness, and love in your heart. He doesn’t have the power to remove your salvation, but he is intent on messing up your journey.
Because of the world, the flesh, and the devil, it is wonderful that the work of Christ on Earth didn’t end on the cross but with the shocking glory of the empty tomb. The empty tomb of Jesus is your guarantee of help here and now and of help to come. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that the resurrection of Christ guarantees the present reign of Christ (see vv. 20–28.) What is the King doing right now? Paul says, “He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25). The sin that causes us so much heartache will be defeated. The enemy, who sows so much turmoil in our lives, will be defeated. Death, which seems to be the inescapable reality of our lives, will be defeated. The risen, conquering King will defeat these enemies, and the empty tomb is his promise.
But there is more. Paul tells us that the resurrection of Christ is a “firstfruit” resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20). This is such an encouraging word picture. When that first apple appears on the tree, the first grape on the vine, or the first bean on the plant, it is a guarantee of a harvest of many more to come. The empty tomb of Jesus guarantees another resurrection. We will rise up on the last day and be transported to a new world, a world where all things have been made new. There will be no more sin, there will be no more broken world, and there will be no more death. All pain, frustration, discouragement, and suffering will forever end. And as risen and fully redeemed beings, we will live forever in peace and harmony with our risen Savior King.
The empty tomb of Jesus is your guarantee that what you live with today will not always be. Every enemy that troubles your life right here, right now, will be under the victorious feet of your risen Savior, Jesus. His empty tomb guarantees the completion of the work. He will not quit; he refuses to relent until that last enemy is under his feet. Then, and only then, will he usher in his final kingdom and invite us into a world where all things have been made new.
The journey of Jesus to the cross didn’t end with the cross, but with the victory of the empty tomb, and that’s a very good thing.
GOING DEEPER
Reflection Questions
1. How has what you’ve considered in this Lenten study informed or changed your perspective on the suffering and grief inherent in life on Earth?
2. How will considering Jesus’s sacrifice make the triumph of Easter different for you this year?
3. What implications does the victory of the empty tomb have for your life?
Read the end of the story in John 20:1–29, and relive the joy of the first Easter.
The Resurrection
1 Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. 8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— 9 for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. 10 Then they went home.
11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in.
12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.
13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him.
15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
16 “Mary!” Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).
17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
19 That Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.
20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
24 One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. 25 They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
26 Eight days later, the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said.
27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
