My Bible Sampler Quilt Project has me reading through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as we just happen to be in the Easter season in real time. This passage describes the scene at the empty tomb that early morning. A cluster of women had shown up with prepared spices. But instead of a body, two angels were there, who provided the explanation for His absence. “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not there, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again’.”
When the women reported all of this back to the eleven apostles, the passage says, “And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.”
Which is totally understandable. My first reaction is incredulity when I check the news each morning. While I was sleeping, new executive orders were signed, new cities were burned down, new victims were assaulted. Society is changing so radically, so swiftly, it takes more than a few deep breaths to process it all. And my personal feelings towards these changes are infinitesimal when compared to the universal consequences that followed the news of a resurrected Jesus.
Easter morning flipped the whole world upside down, and its epicenter was the site of the empty tomb.
Gone were animal sacrifices. Gone was the need for priests. Gone was the need for a tabernacle at all. The whole Jewish religious infrastructure turned obsolete overnight. There were going to be A LOT of changes to the status quo around there. All the law and the prophecies and the promises were fulfilled in Him. It was finished.
There would be no going back. Like it or not, we must move forward to our new normal. As the lyrics of the song say, we need to “Turn and face the strange”.
Just be sure to have a mask covering that face.
Cuts With Scissors 