Resurrection Day - Closing the Gap
When I look only at the tree tops against the first light of dawn, and leave the chimneys and lampposts on the edge of my peripheral vision, I could be anywhere. I could be watching the sun rise behind the trees in a garden tomb just outside Jerusalem. Twenty one years ago I was there on a university trip. ‘He is not here; He has risen,’ is what was written on the stone beside the entrance. In the distance, the traditional site for Golgotha could be seen.
In my mind’s eye, I am back there. I start to think about distance. I’m walking the Via Dolorosa again (the way of sorrow), as Jesus did; but not with a heavy load on my back, not with the sins of the world or even a cross. I look at Golgotha and think about how Jesus might have walked out of this tomb and gazed at Calvary just as I did back then, remembering His ordeal. I think about the distance Joseph and Nicodemus must have travelled with Jesus’ body and seventy five pounds of aloes and myrrh. I think about the distance between heaven and earth, the Father and me and how the gap closed for us all because of this day.
God’s goodness is not light years away, it is running after us. It’s as close as the first sun beams to reach my eyes this morn. And Jesus is as close as the blood in our veins if we stay connected to the vine. The Holy Spirit’s resurrection power was not just in a garden tomb, it’s inside of us. Jesus paid the price so that we would not be paralysed in our sins but able to run the race before us. And the distance to the finish line? No distance at all because He is alongside us, running with us, before us and is our rear guard. He is the path itself and the reward at the end.
I read yesterday that master carpenters had a tradition of folding their aprons and placing them on a finished piece to say that the work was complete. In the same way, Peter found the burial cloth folded in the tomb- the Master carpenter had finished the job! Hallelujah! Jesus ran His race; with Him in us, so can we.
- Jesse Kaur
In my mind’s eye, I am back there. I start to think about distance. I’m walking the Via Dolorosa again (the way of sorrow), as Jesus did; but not with a heavy load on my back, not with the sins of the world or even a cross. I look at Golgotha and think about how Jesus might have walked out of this tomb and gazed at Calvary just as I did back then, remembering His ordeal. I think about the distance Joseph and Nicodemus must have travelled with Jesus’ body and seventy five pounds of aloes and myrrh. I think about the distance between heaven and earth, the Father and me and how the gap closed for us all because of this day.
God’s goodness is not light years away, it is running after us. It’s as close as the first sun beams to reach my eyes this morn. And Jesus is as close as the blood in our veins if we stay connected to the vine. The Holy Spirit’s resurrection power was not just in a garden tomb, it’s inside of us. Jesus paid the price so that we would not be paralysed in our sins but able to run the race before us. And the distance to the finish line? No distance at all because He is alongside us, running with us, before us and is our rear guard. He is the path itself and the reward at the end.
I read yesterday that master carpenters had a tradition of folding their aprons and placing them on a finished piece to say that the work was complete. In the same way, Peter found the burial cloth folded in the tomb- the Master carpenter had finished the job! Hallelujah! Jesus ran His race; with Him in us, so can we.
- Jesse Kaur
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