It IS Finished!

By Willow Sanders, Director of Student Services

Earlier in the week I was reading and came upon a story I’d heard at least a thousand times since childhood. It’s the story of the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Luke 24 gives a glimpse of the retelling of those first morning hours on the third day.

But one line just pierced my heart as I read it again and it just stayed with me all week.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

It’s a good question and one that was totally appropriate for the context of the story. Three days prior Jesus had been crucified, his followers were grieving, his body buried behind a heavy stone. Even with all they had been told, their Messiah was gone and life as they knew it was over. Or was it?

They’re asked this poignant question by what we can assume are angelic beings. Scared for sure by first finding their Master gone, and secondly by the appearance of these beings and the revelation they had forgotten. Maybe it was emotion at the loss of One so great. Maybe it was exhaustion of living through the past three days of Jesus’ life.

We’re not much different are we?

There are times in our lives when we’ve been given the road map. Told exactly the plan of execution for a season of our lives, but we arrive totally void of the knowledge given to us.  But we’re SO exhausted at dealing with this life or we’re so filled with emotions rather than Truth.  As our culture continues to speed up and it asks our young people to hurry up and grow up, we are constantly left trying to play catch up.

I can remember times when I arrived at a new venture or mission and I kept trying to drag the old with me. The old mindset. The old operating system. The old ME. I had forgotten that God was doing something new!

So like the two ladies at the tomb that day, we can find ourselves surprised by our Savior. We don’t have to hang on to the old things of the past. Yes, some things are meant to stay but others are not. Other things we’ve gotten fresh information on…we just need to walk in it!

Our every day and every moment can be a turning again, a re-orienting and redirection to the Gospel of our Lord.  It is our privilege to keep preaching the Gospel to ourselves and to one another rather than listening to condemning voices.  We get to look deeper and deeper into the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection every day so that we may live in the riches of God’s grace through Christ. 

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?” reminds us, Christian, that we live in the completed work of Jesus Christ—sins completely forgiven, atonement completely made, justification completely declared, adoption completely accomplished, and glory completely secured.  It is finished!