~by Emily Kopf
~by Emily Kopf
~by Emily Kopf
She didn’t understand.
He was their Messiah, their Christ — it didn’t matter what language the word was in, He was the One chosen by the great God Himself to bring everlasting peace and righteousness to her people.
How could He be dead?
He had such power – to heal the sick and raise the dead with only a word from His mouth. He had escaped death so many times simply by walking away in the midst of a murderous crowd.
Why didn’t He protect Himself?
She had suspected that He was somehow God Himself in a human body. Who else could perform so many miracles, even raising the dead?
But no — not now, that couldn’t be. He was dead. God couldn’t die. That would be impossible.
She had seen it. She had watched them kill Him. Tears trickled down her eyes anew at the thought, and she struggled to push the memories away. Memories of such horror, of seeing the One she loved so beaten and bloody she couldn’t recognize Him as human. She couldn’t even close her eyes to escape the gory memories flashing in her mind’s eye. She shuddered.
How could they have done that to Him?
He was so gentle, so kind.
Sometimes she wished He would have been a little less gentle and kind and had beaten back those insufferable Roman heathens like the prophecies foretold.
But it didn’t matter now. He was dead. Her Jesus was dead.
She felt a touch on her shoulder, bringing her back to the present where she huddled in the dark. It was one of the other women who had followed Jesus like she had.
“It’s almost dawn.”
Dawn of the third day since He died. Had it only been that long?
“Some of the other ladies and I are going to anoint His body. He deserves a proper burial. Would you like to join us?”
She might as well go — it wasn’t as if she could sleep. She crawled to her feet and silently followed the other women. The somber procession trekked through Jerusalem and toward the tomb in the garden.
“Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” one of the women asked.
The women started offering ideas, but none seemed sufficient.
At last, she could see the tomb. And as the sun began to peek above the horizon, they felt the tremors of an earthquake and stumbled to the ground. The tremors brought back memories of that dark day. The earth had shaken then, too, like a punishment from God for killing His Chosen One. She held back another sob.
But as her eyes fastened back on the tomb, a man shining like the sun descended from the sky, rolled the stone away from the tomb, and sat upon it.
The woman cowered in fear, and the Roman guards, who were always so intimidating and dedicated, collapsed to the ground in a dead faint!
She couldn’t think. What now? Was God’s judgement coming on them for what they had done?
But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid! I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as He said would happen. Come, see where His body was lying. And now, go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and He is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see Him there. Remember what I have told you.”
But — what was this? The angel said Jesus was alive? How could that be? Oh, how she hoped that was true!
Through the blur of her tears and racing thoughts, she found herself running back into the city with the other women. Breathless, they stammered the story to the men who had followed Jesus. The men scoffed, though two of them raced to see if it was true.
The hours of joy, fear, hope, doubt, speculation, and excitement passed. As evening came, she found herself sitting with the others in a room.
Then He was there. The doors were locked, but He was there as if He had always been. Jesus was alive!
He looked a little different — healthier, more alive, more beautiful — but it was definitely Him. More tears came to her, but this time of joy.
He wasn’t a ghost, He was real. She knew it because she could touch Him and see that He ate and drank.
The scars from His death were there too. No, she hadn’t imagined that. She could still see the images in her mind if she closed her eyes.
But He was alive.
As He spoke and explained, it all made sense to her.
She and all of humankind had disobeyed their God and Creator. They deserved death and separation from God. But He, in His mercy, had shown them how to make animal sacrifices to cover their sin with the death of an innocent creature: one innocent life in exchange for one sinful life. But the animals weren’t enough. A mere animal could never take the whole punishment of a human’s sin. So God Himself had become the man Jesus and lived a perfect life, innocent of any sin. And though He had the power to stop it, He died as a sacrifice to permanently get rid of the sin of anyone who chooses to believe in Him. And to prove that He was God and that His sacrifice worked, Jesus came back to life, impossibly, after three days.
She cried with joy to see it. How much He must love her to die for Her, evil sinner that she was. How sweet it was to see Him alive again and to know from the evidence before her eyes that she was believing the truth. Jesus, the true God, Savior, and Lord.
…
Verse quotes from NLT. Mark 16:3 and Matthew 28:5-7.