Imagine a dear friend passing a way. You are struck with a great sense of mourning and when you go to pay your respects it appears that someone has stolen their body. In this day and age where we hear about all sorts of sick things in the world I am sure our minds would be filled with horrible things that might be happening to our passed friend. I always read this passage and think about the horror that would enter my mind if I was one of the early arrivals and saw Jesus gone.
Here is someone that taught me about love, feed me whom I saw heal the sick and take care of those in need, someone that was a true light in the world. I saw him rise to fame, and then because he was not what everyone wanted was beaten, spit on, called names, mocked, then nailed to a cross and left for dead only to be finished off by being stabbed in the side.
Before Jesus left he spoke three times about rising from the dead. Though his followers didn’t understand at the time his words came true. I guess this goes to speak to how hard it can be to have faith. I am human and I am flawed. I am not a God but I have been given free will. I can do whatever I want. That was a gift God gave to me. He made this wonderful world and gave me rules, but I am not a programmed robot. God lets me choose, to do his will or mine. I can steal, lie, get drunk or high and even have rampant adulterous sex as much as I want, or I can love. I can love God with all my mind, body and soul and love everyone I meet the way I would want to be loved. I have traveled both roads and I will say that my life is more full and more happy following Jesus’s teachings.
It can be hard at times when my “flesh” just wants to “have fun” and fulfill all my desires. Luckily I know that road and I know how empty and lonely and sick it feels. I do my best to teach my children of these things so that hopefully they have a happy life and fill it with good things and learn from my mistakes. I make mistakes even to this day and when I do I ask forgiveness. I get on my knees and say that I am sorry honestly from my heart. Its not an exercise just to get out of trouble. I truly love God just like my family and friends, and I feel bad when I let God down just like I do when I let my friends and family down. I may not always understand the world and how God gets things done, but I have learned by practicing what Jesus taught that his way is right and true, so I have faith. Its hard but it works for me.
John 20:1-2, 11-18
1Now on the first day of the week Mary Mag'dalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." 11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." 14Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." 16Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rab-bo'ni!" (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." 18Mary Mag'dalene went and said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
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