Keep Watch

Easter has come and gone. Christ has risen, appeared to his followers, and ascended to heaven. I love when he said, "I will be with you always, even unto the end of the age." What a great comfort. He will never leave us. He is with us always.

I was reading in the gospel of Mark where Jesus foretells of the judgment, and of his coming again on the clouds. He says to keep watch, because we don't know when it will happen. The disciples all began keeping watch right away.


Two thousand years later we are still keeping watch. Some people keep watch by climbing to a mountain top and looking expectantly at the sky, whether literally or figuratively. The world goes on below them; friends in need, people starving, unbelievers living in darkness. These mountaintop believers can't wait for Christ's return. They are always keeping watch.


But I think that "keeping watch" means more. I think it means we need to keep watch of our own hearts, our own faults, evil desires, and sinful natures. There is a reason why two thousand years have passed without Christ's return. We are still in training. I think we are supposed to recognize the foolishness, or at least the error, of those who have literally gone up to roofs or mountaintops throughout history, expecting Christ's return on a certain day, only to come back down, disappointed. I think these are reminders to keep on keeping watch; of our own hearts. and others' needs. Yes, eternity is endless, but we are already living this day, which is after all, part of eternity.


Keep watch. For "the Kingdom will not come with your careful observations...the Kingdom of God is within you."

He Is Risen

It's Easter Sunday. He is risen. Jesus is no longer in the darkness of the tomb. No longer a prisoner in his uncomfortable human form. Although after his resurrection he appeared to witnesses in human form, even inviting Thomas to put his fingers in the holes in his hands, and even eating fish on the beach, he was no longer human in the same way as before. He appeared out of - and disappeared into - thin air. Mostly, the spectre of death no longer loomed over him. He had overcome it. And that, of course, is exactly why he rose from the dead; to show, to prove, to us that even death could not defeat the Son of God. And he had said we are all sons of God if we believe in him. So we should not fear death. In fact, we should not fear anything. One of the shortest, simplest, and most power-packed lines in the Bible is Jesus speaking to Jairus, the man with whom he travelled to heal his daughter, who was at the point of death. As they were travelling, news came to them that it was too late. She had died. Never mind bothering Jesus any more. (Mark 5:36) Jesus, undeterred, simply said to him, "Do not fear. Only believe." And kept on walking.

Those simple words have sustained me many many times. Those words, coming straight from Jesus' mouth, are like an instant tranquilizer. How can we not believe Jesus when he calmly tells us, "Do not fear. Only believe."

And here he is, on Easter Sunday, risen from the dead. The disciples need not have feared. They should have believed. But they were human, like us. They needed proof, and Jesus, knowing the hearts of men, gave them the proof they needed. He appeared suddenly to them in a locked room. And again. And again.

So today we rejoice. Jesus keeps his promises. And he has promised that he prepares a place for us in his Father's house.

Do not fear. Only believe.

In The Tomb

Today Christ is in the tomb. All is darkness. The disciples are sequestered; depressed and confused. For all they know, all is lost. It's over. Probably racking their brains trying to remember exactly what it was he said about all this. Something about destroying the temple and raising it back up in three days? You will see me no more, but then you will see me? Something like that. What else? What else? The kingdom of God is within you. Uh, something about 'now I tell you plainly. I will be crucified, but I will rise again on the third day." Or in their grief, did they even remember that promise? He was actually, literally dead. He didn't climb down from the cross. Their messiah died like a man. Like any man. Just a man.

Such were the tortured thoughts of Jesus' disciples and most loyal followers today. I doubt that they were very hopeful. I think they wanted to be, but did they have it in them to pull it off? To really believe what he "told them plainly"?

Yesterday I was a bit in darkness. I had a bad attitude. I felt disappointed and angry with myself. For no apparent reason, I just didn't like myself, and couldn't muster a really positive thought. I allowed a little self-pity and today I can't for the life of me imagine what for. I am the most fortunate of women. More blessings than I could possibly list. Yet I actually shed a tear for myself yesterday. I am ashamed of that, but I am letting it go. What it may have accomplished is giving me a glimpse into the innermost hurt-thoughts of some people I know. While I don't want to give life to these negative attitudes by thinking too much about them, perhaps I can better pray for them, having felt the cold and damp of a tiny corner of their dark rooms.

I do pray for all those who are in the dark. I pray for the lonely, the angry, the brokenhearted, the vengeful, the spiteful and the hateful. I pray that this day of darkness will give way to the Resurrection of their souls by the miraculous dawn of Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I pray that those in darkness will see the Light of tomorrow's dawn and Live.

Amen.

Good Friday Volcano

Today is Good Friday. I am well aware of it all day. This is the day we remember that Jesus Christ not only died on the cross, but suffered so much. For us.

I had a kind of vision about this. I don't mean that I went into a trance and really "saw" this, but the idea came into my head. What follows is not an entirely biblical account, but what occurred to me.

The pain of the nails, the beating, the thorns cutting into his head, was not the worst of it. It was the burden of the sins of all mankind infused into Christ's being that was the unbearable pain he felt. He felt all the physical pain, and all the spiritual and emotional pain as well. Thank God, he died sooner than anyone expected on that cross. But it was still too long for such suffering. When the time finally came and he knew it, and he uttered those famous words, "It is finished" and the last breath of his human life was expelled, a volcano erupted in the unseen world. With that last breath, all the sins of the world were exhaled into space and lifted to heaven where they disintegrated. At that very moment, the curtain in the temple ripped wide open from top to bottom. The curtain that for centuries kept the people from "the presence of God" in the altar room, the "holiest of holies". Sudden access was granted. And as the earth literally shook, and the sky darkened, a blast of unseen light blew up from the body of Christ, a giant portal was opened like a vertical pipeline to God , and the separation of God and man was breached. And this blast of unseen light shot straight up and then, like volcanic ash, began to disperse with the wind; it began to spread abroad, and settle on people all over the world.

Jesus' resurrection two days later proved it all. But that moment of his last breath is what opened the portal to God for all of us.

Thank you Jesus.