Shaken World and Shattered Expectations

I have had such a myriad of thoughts and emotions this weekend.  Yesterday I had the privilege of taking a close friend to Scott’s grave for the first time.  As I sit here thinking back over the time at the cemetery yesterday, I am struck with a few things.

Being at the cemetery on Good Friday and talking about Scott’s death has really made me think about the emotions on the very first Good Friday.  I can imagine the grief and despair flooding Jesus’s friends, disciples, and family.  I don’t believe at that moment that any of them had any faith in Jesus returning from the dead.  After all, other than a few people they had not seen anyone come back from the dead – and those people were raised from the dead by Jesus’s hand.

I can picture Mary and Mary Magdalene approaching the tomb after the Sabbath.  I can imagine the grief overwhelming them as they were facing the reality of Jesus’s death.  Then seeing the Angel of the Lord roll away the stone and receiving the message of Jesus’s resurrection, certainly must have had their heads spinning and afraid to believe the Angel’s message.  I can only imagine the fear that this was all a dream and that they would wake up to find that Jesus was still dead.  Then on their way to find the disciples, they encountered Jesus.  It was an encounter that shook their world and shattered their expectations.


The resurrection encounter still today shakes our world and shatters our expectations.  Because of the resurrection I have an expectation and a hope that I will see Scott again one day.  The resurrection shatters the permanency of death and brings hope of life at the darkest of times.  Today Scott is experiencing the other side of resurrection in a way that completely destroys our limited understanding of heaven and God’s glory and love.  Ultimately it is the hope of the resurrection that keeps me going on those days when I miss Scott so much.

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