The Light Shines in the Darkness

As a continuation of my last post from Holy Saturday...

Everything seemed dark for the followers of Jesus.  It had all come crashing down so suddenly.  The joyful celebration of Palm Sunday had so quickly turned into the frightening, tear-filled night of Holy Thursday.  The ruthless death of crucifixion had taken Him from them.  Three years of learning, growing, sacrificing...and for what?  The future loomed ahead with so many unanswered questions.

Early Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene came to them with the craziest notion:  she had seen the Lord.  Alive.  He spoke to her.  There were angels as well, telling her not to seek the living among the dead.  What was this nonsense?  Peter and John ran to the tomb.  Someone must have stolen the body of Jesus, and was playing some kind of cruel trick.

But stepping into the darkened space, they saw something beyond belief.  There was no longer a body of a dead Man.  There was the simple burial cloth, folded and set aside.  If someone had stolen His body, they wouldn't have taken the time to do that, would they?

So many questions.  Mary's answer didn't seem plausible.  Yet she was so emphatic that she had actually seen Jesus and heard His voice.  Could it be?  How could it be?

Two other disciples showed up with another impossible story.  A man had been walking along the road to Emmaus with them.  When they stopped for their evening meal, they invited the man to stay with them.  As the time approached for the blessing, they asked their visitor to pray.  In His actions, they began to know and truly see.  As soon as He left them (disappeared, they said!), they returned to Jerusalem to tell the eleven disciples.  Is this really happening?  It all seemed too incredible to be true!

And then, in the darkness of their fear, disbelief, and suspicions, He was there.  In the very room where they sat, He suddenly appeared.  The room was immediately filled with a new light!

"Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, 'Peace to you.' But they were startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit. And he said to them, 'Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.'  And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?' They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them."

As John would later testify, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." 

There would still be doubts and questions in the coming days.  But now they had all seen Him, heard His voice, witnessed His wounds, and observed Him eating a piece of fish.  His light had pierced the darkness of their despair.

Though they had thought His story had ended at the cross, they could now see that it really began at that empty tomb!

"In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."  John 1:4-5