On a Sunday long, long ago, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to fulfill a prophecy found in Zechariah 9.9.
The following day, he walked into the temple and drove out the moneychangers. The next day, he told parables and warned the people about the Pharisees and predicted the destruction of the temple.
We have no idea what he did on Wednesday (maybe he prayed and/or rested), but on Thursday he celebrated the Passover Meal with his disciples and later went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray.
Later that night, he was betrayed, arrested, imprisoned, deserted, falsely accused and tried, denied, condemned, beaten, and sentenced to crucifiction. Friday, he carried his cross to Golgotha, meaning the place of the skull, and he was crucified until death with two other prisoners.
He spent Saturday in the grave, and early on Sunday morning he rose from his tomb, and 2,000 years later we continue to celebrate this resurrection!
That is how it is with you. As far as God’s Law is concerned, you also have died because you are part of the body of Christ. Now you belong to Him, who was raised from death in order that we might be useful in the service of God.
We are under the law until we die with Christ and then we are alive in Christ. As Christians, we are “dead to the world” and “alive in the body of Christ!”
It’s one thing to celebrate the resurrection and quite another thing to experience our own.
You’ve likely never heard of Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, but in 1917 he was among the most powerful men on earth. He took part in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda, which means “truth.” Bukharin was a full member of the Politburo and his writings on economics and political science are still read today, nearly a century after his death.
Then in 1930, he traveled from Moscow to Kiev to speak about atheism. He spoke for an hour in favor of atheism and against the Christian faith. At the end, he paused and looked out over the smoldering ashes of the Christian faith and asked if there were any questions.
The silence was deafening, and fear filled the room — the fear of challenging what he’d said and the fear of challenging one of the most powerful men on earth.
Then a man from the crowd stood up and slowly made his way to the platform. He walked over to the lectern and stood there for what seemed like an eternity.
He looked back and forth across the crowd and suddenly shouted the ancient Russian Orthodox greeting, “Christ is risen!” And those in the crowd stood to their feet shouting, “He is risen indeed!”
Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Dawson Street Methodist Church in Thomasville, Ga. With wife, Mary Ella, they are missionaries to the Navajo Reservation.
