Good Question
By: Jack Wyman
He was dead. This they knew. Everyone knew.
Doubts would come, but not about his death.
These three came very early, guided by the dawn’s first glimmering light.
Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome had come to the garden tomb of their friend Jesus. They had come to anoint his body with spices. Entering the open tomb, the women “did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.” (Luke 24:3)
This was the very last thing they expected. The very last thing anyone would expect.
They expected fully to find him there—what was left of him; his beaten, pierced, tortured, slain body wrapped with loving tenderness in gentle linens. The women expected to find Jesus just as they had left him two days earlier: in this cemetery, in this borrowed grave, very much dead.
But they “found not the body of the Lord Jesus.” He was gone.
As they stood astonished at this mystery of a missing body, two men in shining apparel suddenly appeared to them. One of them asked the women a direct and simple question:
“Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5)
While it made no sense to the terrified women, this question made perfect sense to these two men—angels we presume. “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here but is risen. . .” (Luke 24:6) The angels recalled what Jesus had said about his resurrection. How he had predicted it. “Then they [the women] remembered…” (Luke 24:8)
He’s alive!
These women—and the whole world—would never be the same. Jesus had conquered the grave. He was brought here. But he did not remain. He would not stay “among the dead.” And, believe it or not, his resurrection changed everything forever.
We don’t go to the graveyard seeking life. It’s the last place we’d go to find it. A cemetery is the place of death. No matter how much we seek to beautify its exterior and euphemize its reality, it remains the place where we bring the ashes and bodies of those who are no more in this world and in this life.
We call it “the final resting place.” A dead body can offer nothing—no advice, no encouragement, no comfort, no hope, and no love. It would be the height of ironic futility and nonsense to seek the living among the dead.
So why do so many of us do just that?
Things of this world continue to allure us—to some degree and in some way. Every day we find ourselves locked in mortal combat with the baubles of the world, the longings of the flesh, and the deceits of the devil. We struggle against them as we seek to discover the authentic God-life amidst this earth-bound existence.
It is never easy. Not in our reeling world.
Too often we have placed our faith in many things and sought our pleasure in many places. And to no avail. That’s because, in the end, for all its charm and beauty, this world remains in miserable bondage—unable to resist or to satisfy. It flails under the curse of sin, Paul says in Romans 8.
The whole earth groans under the captivity of that curse, longing “with eager hope” for the day of its liberation. That will be the day when God shall reclaim and restore his fallen creation: “the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.” (Romans 8:22)
It is the most stunning promise you and I have—this promise of the resurrection. The most meaningful and the most comforting; the most secure and the most lasting. For now, this world is a cemetery in which too many seek life—its joy, satisfaction, and meaning—among the dead. Among the decaying remains of man’s misguided trust and long-lost dreams.
“Love not the world,” warns John in his first letter, “neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (I John 2:15)
John explains:
“For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. . . And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave.” (I John 2:16) It is a false faith in things that cannot last. That cannot satisfy.
The wisest man who ever lived had it all and still it wasn’t enough. “Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. . . But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.” (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11) A very contemporary lament.
Jesus rose from the grave that first resurrection morning. He left his grave clothes behind him. Jesus left the cemetery. So should we. We should follow him out of the world’s graveyard.
Jesus tells us: “I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) When he walked out of the tomb at sunrise, Jesus proved he is the Lord of life. It is this life he gives us—abundant, hopeful, joyous, and free.
At the end of our broken dreams and vain ambitions, Jesus opens wide his arms of love and invites us to come to him. For our hungry and thirsty souls, he offers us the bread of life and living water. His presence to cheer and his wisdom to guide.
Why would anyone—knowing what Jesus Christ did for us, knowing his triumph over sin and death, knowing his precious promises and his love for you and for me—why would anyone go looking for hope in a graveyard?
We celebrate life and the Author of it. The resurrection is more than a holiday, it’s a radical transformation.
Why would you and I ever seek the living among the dead?
Good question.
To order Jack Wyman’s book, “Everything Else: Stories of Life, Faith and Our World”, go to amazon.com, Christian Book Distributors or barnesandnoble.com. It is also available on Kindle and eBooks.
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