“It was the end, then it wasn’t, then it was just the beginning!”
Talk about an emotional roller coaster! Even though Jesus had specifically taught His Apostles that He would die and rise again, it was a very hard concept to truly process. After all, Jesus had raised the dead more than once, and had given sight to the blind; how could He possibly be defeated? And yet Jesus had taught them in unmistakable language that this was exactly what would transpire (Mark 8:31 KJV) “And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” We humans have difficulty accepting our own mortality, and how much more this young man who walked with God (naturally, since He was God incarnate) and who could conquer anything in the twinkling of an eye?
Then it happened! In a horrible sequence of events, moving from the garden where He was taken and where He refused to contend, to the Palace and Pilate where He was humiliated and abused and refused to answer, to the Calvary journey where he was tortured and killed, refusing to call on angels or His own ultimate power. The invincible One was dead! That certainly speaks of an end. Christ’s followers were certain of victory, instead they were left to bury the victim. It was the end.
But then it wasn’t! The ladies at the sepulchre, the soldiers fainting away as dead themselves, Peter and John running to see what wasn’t there, and then, Jesus presenting himself, wounds and all, and even having a bite to eat with the brethren. It wasn’t the end! I suppose Thomas epitomized and stated what others might have been thinking, but when Jesus appeared to Thomas and instructed him to “Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing” our Doubting Thomas turned into our Testifying Thomas, proclaiming “My Lord and my God.” It wasn’t the end after all!
Actually, it was just the real beginning for believers. The Great Commission, the New Testament in His blood, authoring the Word of God, witnessing before the big and the little, suffering for the LORD Jesus Christ, loving a lost world, and for all or almost all, giving their lives in Christ’s service! It was just the beginning!
And the fact is that this same theme repeats itself in all believers. It is the end at our death, but we’re immediately present with the LORD so it isn’t the end, and it’s really just the beginning of our beautiful eternity. For Jesus way back then, “It was the end, then it wasn’t, then it was just the beginning!” and for us right now as believers, “It appears to be the end, then it isn’t, then it’s just the beginning of our eternity with our Blessed Saviour!”
I’d say that’s a pretty fair summary and postscript of the story of Resurrection Sunday! Love to all,
Pastor
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