Luke
24:1-12
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. They found
the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered,
they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were
wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like
lightning stood beside them. 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? He is not here; He
has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in
Galilee: “The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands
of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”’
Then they remembered his words.
When
they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the
Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to
the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because
their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got
up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen
lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had
happened.
We
all know the saying “every cloud has a silver lining”? What does
it mean? When the storm is coming all is dark, the sky becomes black
and can even be quite frightening. During a storm my Grandmother was
so frightened that she would usually be found hiding in the cupboard
under the stairs. A storm can be quite frightening thing when the
wind gets up, the rain lashes down and the lightening begins to
flash. We can tell that the storm is getting closer by the shortening
gap between flash of lightening and bang of thunder. At times we
might even wonder whether we will survive but as the storm passes
over with great relief we look to the sky and see a brilliant edge to
the cloud. The sun is winning the battle the storm is disappearing
and soon we have brightness and all is well. Hence the saying that
every cloud has a silver lining. There are some benefits from a
storm, one of them is really quite surprising; the lightening which
is so dangerous also produces fertiliser for the ground, the electric
charge breaks down the atmosphere and produces lovely nutrients that
feed our plants.
The
day that Jesus died was like the darkest ever storm cloud over the
whole world but Good Friday had the greatest benefits for mankind.
Matthew
28:1-10: After
the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and
the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
There
was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from
heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.
His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as
snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and
became like dead men.
The
angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are
looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen,
just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly
and tell his disciples: “He has risen from the dead and is going
ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.” Now I have told
you.’
So
the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and
ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’
he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshipped him. Then
Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to
go to Galilee; there they will see me.’
A
dark cloud over the friends of Jesus:
Jesus
had a number of friends that had remained faithful to Him through
this extremely tense period of time. There were now only 11
disciples, Judas had killed himself. The disciples themselves had
hung on by the skin of their teeth. Even the big man Peter had denied
Jesus for a while but now they were together in their grief and
confusion. With them were also a number of women. There was Mary the
mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Joanna and others.
The
one thing that united them all was Jesus. They had greatly respected
Him and loved Him. They all had faith in Him to varying degrees but
now they were united in grief for their teacher and friend who had
been so cruelly and wrongly killed.
We
can imagine the thoughts going through their minds, grief is a
strange thing in that it causes all sorts of emotions and reactions.
This grief was all very new to them, they were having to pick up the
pieces after having had three amazing years with the Lord Jesus
Christ.
To
add to their problems, Jesus could not have died at a more
inconvenient time! It was feast time, the whole nation was rejoicing
in the memory of salvation from Egypt. It was Passover, the most
important feast day of the Jewish calendar! As the nation was
rejoicing in the light of salvation from Egypt the friends of Jesus
were under the cloud of grief. If only they had been able to
understand Jesus’ teaching about His death then they would have
been saved from a great deal of sorrow. They were first hand
witnesses of the working out of the Great Passover.
Their
problem was that they could not see the silver lining of this very
black cloud.
Their
black cloud had a silver lining!
Jesus
had died late on Friday, the day before the Sabbath. Due to Sabbath
laws they had buried Him quickly, leaving some of the ritual
preparations incomplete. This meant that after the celebrations they
had to return to the grave, open it up and embalm Jesus’ body
properly. After all if anybody deserved a decent burial it was Jesus!
Can
you imagine what sort of holiday weekend these friends of Jesus had?
They were in deep grief and also they had this most distasteful of
duties to perform. I can imagine them dreading Sunday morning; fancy
having to get up early in the morning to that!
Their
minds would have been racing with thoughts and memories. They would
have gone through all of the usual repercussions and guilt trips that
grief brings: the “if only’s” etc. They would have had
sleepless nights where they would have considered all that Jesus had
done and said. They would have considered all of His teaching. They
would have had all of the “why” questions. So much had been left
undone. They would have gone through their last moments with Him. Why
did some of them sleep whilst He prayed? Why did some deny Him? Why
did they stand afar when He was dying? All of these things are
natural grief and are an important part of coming to terms with the
death of somebody close to us. These would certainly have been the
emotions going through the disciples minds on that day.
On
top of these things there was an element of confusion about the
person of Jesus. They had recently declared to Him that they had
nowhere else to go and that He had words of eternal life but where
did His dying leave them now? He had said that He would rise again
but their minds would have been on the day of resurrection some time
in the future.
If
only they could have seen that their dark cloud had a silver lining!
The
light shines through the darkness:
The
ladies were prepared for the moment. Spices at the ready they went
along to the tomb. They had a problem, there had been a sealing stone
rolled into the entrance of the tomb, how would they move it?
But
that did not deter them.
On
their arrival they found that the tomb was open and on looking inside
the body of Jesus was gone. We can imagine all of the immediate
thoughts at that moment. Who has done this? Where have they taken
Him? As all of these thoughts were going through their minds, enter
two men in flashy clothes. These are clearly no ordinary men; in fact
we would know them as angels because they have an important message
from God to the ladies. The ladies are understandably surprised and
frightened. They bow their faces before the men who immediately turn
the ladies attention from angel worship to the reality of the
situation. In effect they say to the ladies “what are you doing
here in a tomb? This is a place of death! Jesus is risen just as He
has been telling you that He would!”
Jesus
had been teaching His disciples that He would be crucified and that
on the third day He would rise again but it clearly had not sunk in.
They could not understand it, who can blame them? It is still the
same today; there is nothing new under the sun. The gospel of Jesus
has been preached clearly for centuries, men, women, boys and girls
have heard it but yet when confronted with the empty tomb they will
not believe it is possible that God’s Son Jesus Christ has risen!
People
will believe in all sorts of fantasies but a Saviour who comes from
heaven and dies on a cross and rises back to life again on the third
day all because God loves humanity is just too hard to believe.
I
wonder if there are any here today who are just like these women.
They had been with Jesus; they had heard His clear teaching but yet
had forgotten the most important facts! Are you like them having
heard the gospel but yet not believing? This account gives heart to
the preacher and teacher, if the friends of Jesus who heard His very
words could not take it in then we should not be surprised that with
our inferior efforts people just do not get it!!!!
BUT:
The
dark cloud has a silver lining!
These
ladies on that day were under a very dark cloud. They were in
desperate grief, they had a gruesome task to undertake and they were
confused as to why things had turned out the way that they had. If
that were not a dark enough cloud they also had to cope with the
apparent theft of the body and now to top it all 2 men have come
besides them. But at that moment the dark cloud’s silver lining is
about to be revealed.
The
silver lining had been there all along but they simply could not see
it. In fact this dark cloud had been planned by God from before the
foundation of the world. God had a plan for mankind that would
procure salvation by His own sacrifice for those whom He loves. The
sacrifice was to be of the Lord Jesus Christ who alone was able to
accomplish salvation. The silver lining to the cloud is the
resurrection of Jesus and the salvation of His people but that could
not be seen until the storm has passed over.
The
storm has passed over!
The
ladies had spent a period of time in ignorance but were now seeing,
the disciples were still in their ignorance but the reality was that
the storm had passed by. As soon as the ladies had been reminded of
Jesus’ words they remembered all that Jesus had told them. The Holy
Spirit of God opened their eyes and they understood:
Jesus
is Alive!
John
20:1-10: Early
on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene
went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the
entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple,
the one Jesus loved, and said, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the
tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!’
So
Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running,
but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He
bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did
not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight
into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the
cloth that had been wrapped round Jesus’ head. The cloth was still
lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other
disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw
and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that
Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to
where they were staying.
As
soon as they understand they had to tell the others:
Good
News! Jesus is Alive!
You
might think that immediately the lights would come on with the
disciples but you would be quite wrong, they simply would not
believe. Peter and John went racing to the tomb they then saw the
evidence and left totally confused. We know that it is not long
before Jesus reveals Himself to all of the disciples and finally to
Thomas who until that moment would not believe the testimony of His
trusted friends.
Each
one of the disciples had their own personal encounter with the truth
about Jesus. Not one of them simply trusted by the “preached word”
of the others. It was when God Himself by the power of His Spirit
proved that Jesus truly is alive that they each came to believe in
Him.
It
is exactly the same today, we can tell all of the facts, we can
preach with passion and power but until God by His Spirit reveals the
truth our hearers will remain in ignorance in the same way as the
friends of Jesus did.
The
great news is that God delights in saving sinners and we can trust
Him by His Spirit to reveal truth into the unbelieving heart just as
He has done so for all of us who believe.
The
silver lining: Jesus is alive can you see beyond the storm?