Why Jesus Didn’t Stay In The Grave
Jesus didn’t stay dead.
The statement has no more of an impact on most of us than if someone told us who the President was.
“He is risen” we parrot on Easter. We sing songs about the resurrection; we tap our toes to the rhythm of theological statements; we clap our hands on cue; we eat the cracker of his flesh and shoot back the shots of grape juice in his honor. We go through the motions every Sunday, but maybe it’s time to snap out of it — take a step back and escape the currents of Christian culture. Do our lives honestly reflect this life-altering truth?
Jesus. Didn’t. Stay. Dead.
And he was dead! Dead as dead can be. He was flogged, beaten, whipped, stabbed, and hung on a cross like a swine at a meat market.
Psalm 22 says, “I am poured out like water, and all of my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.”
According to Isaiah 53:14, Jesus’ “appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man, and his form did not resemble a human being.”
Let the offensive reality of his death sink into your imagination. Jesus was dead. On the third day, (we all know the story) he rose again.
But, what if, instead of leaving the tomb, Jesus decided to get some needed alone time after spending thirty-three years with numbskull sinners? Or what if he concluded that even though life had miraculously breathed back into his cold carcass, the shame and embarrassment he suffered was too great to face again? What if Jesus hid? What if he stayed inside, playing Minecraft in a fog of Dorito cheese powder? What if he didn’t return to the disciples at all? What if Jesus stayed in the grave?
The resurrection would have been meaningless. Who would have even cared if Jesus was alive had he not let others see and touch the scars on his head, hands and feet?
As Christians, we have died with Christ. That’s what baptism represents. We submerged ourselves underwater to signify that our old selves have died with him, and then we broke the surface in a victorious act that proclaimed our commitment to live with him.
“The saying is trustworthy, for: if we have died with him, we will also live with him.” — 2 Timothy 2:11
The problem is too many Christians stay in the grave. I know I’m guilty of it. We have died with Christ, and we say we live with him, but our lives do not reflect such a truth.
We cower in the shadows of our past and crumble under the weight of our sin. We hide in our comfort zones. We shrink in opportunistic conversations at work; we are afraid to share our stories with our families or we stutter in awkwardness with our non-Christian friends.
Think about this: are you allowing the world to see and touch your scars so that Christ might be glorified through your weaknesses?
The scars on your head — what you’ve thought about — do you dare share with the world so they might see you as broken and in need of a Savior?
The scars on your hands — what you’ve done — are you touching others’ lives with the stories of your past no matter how foolish you might appear?
The scars on your feet — where you’ve been — do you use them for walking to your friends and family who are dead in their sins or paralyzed by guilt and do you say to them, “I’ve been there too, and Jesus Christ gave me life”?
Jesus didn’t wallow in shame or cower in fear or bask in laziness. He was put to death, suffering greatly, and then he stepped back into the world so that the power of God could redeem the weakest moment in all of human history.
Jesus didn’t stay dead.
So neither should you.
No matter what you have been through, God longs to redeem your scars.
“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” — Ephesians 5:14
