EXPECT A MIRACLE

 

April 2, 2024

Luke 24:1-8



24 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words.

EXPECT A MIRACLE

Expect a Miracle. These words were displayed on a card that I saw every Sunday morning for years on the pulpit of our family’s church. It was meant to remind worshippers that God does miraculous works in our day, just as we witness in the Bible. Expect a Miracle was an emphasis to trust in God’s promises.

Over the years, perhaps you can relate to this, I have witnessed God do something so powerful and outside the realm of expectation, that when it happens, it catches me by surprise. Even though I know I worship a God who can do anything, a God who will with certainty be faithful to his promises. Still  I am caught off guard, surprised, “wowed” by God’s miraculous works. 

That’s what it was like that first Resurrection Day.

In the gospels we read that the women didn’t go to a tomb, thinking they would witness a resurrection. Jesus’s disciples were hiding behind locked doors because they didn’t understand what was coming. Jesus had told them again and again.

Matthew 12:40

for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Matthew 16:21

From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.

Matthew 17:22-23

And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.” And they were deeply grieved.

Mark 10:32-34

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.”

The reality is what they knew and what we know, too, is that dead people don’t come back to life.

When we read on in the story, we discover that when they came face-to-face with Jesus back from the dead, it was a “game changer,” or as we said on Sunday, this experience “changed everything.” Changes Everything for us too. The Bible has a message of good news. The good news is that Jesus rose from the dead! Just as the scriptures had said, had promised. That on that first Easter, the women took their spices and went to a tomb to prepare a dead body. But instead, what they found was an empty tomb and a risen Messiah!

That on that day, they came face-to-face with Jesus in the flesh! In Luke 24:39 Jesus says to his followers, “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” Notice the language, not some soul or spirit, but Jesus, back to life! Transformed and renewed. Stronger than death. Alive! God’s new age and new hope for all of us, comes with a promise of resurrection.

“Christ is risen!” “He is risen indeed.” is a refrain shouted by worshippers around the world on each Easter Sunday. It’s a shout of joy and surprise that Jesus is no longer dead. It’s a shout of hope and victory that he’s risen from the grave! “He is not here. He is risen!” May those words from the angel that first Easter change everything for you and me too.

LET US PRAY

JESUS, on the first Easter you stood face to face with your disciples and your resurrected presence transformed everything. Come to us today, we pray, in your risen power and make us glad with your presence. Amen