The Resurrection: God’s Penicillin for Despair

Life is full of “ifs.”

Ifs are the pavement on which we travel to the city called despair. They cluttered the mind of Paul and spilled out of his pen onto the pages of God’s Eternal Word as we read I Corinthians 15: 1, 12-14.

Mary was full of ifs on the first Easter morning. It was not a day of celebration for her. It was a day of mourning and despair. She must have felt like she had been run over by a herd of stampeding donkeys or in modern terminology hit by a big Mack truck. She hit rock bottom as she moved silently through the misty gray dawn in a local cemetery. There were no white Bunny Rabbits, no pastel colored eggs, no frilly bonnets or 5^th Avenue parade. That first Easter sunrise was a bummer with a big capital “B”.

What if Peter had not blatantly denied Christ? What if Judas had not sold him like a stick of butter? What if the disciples had not deserted him? What if Pilate had but listened to his wife about her dream? That was not the case. Ifs are hindsight with 20-20 vision.

A gifted playwright from the early 1900’s might well have expressed the emotions of Mary in the following lines that flowed from the lips of an actress extraordinary. “If, if, if. There were so many “ifs” in life, never any certainty of anything, never any sense of security, always the dread of losing everything, and being cold and hungry again.”

This is the sum total of despair. I don’t think Mary came to the cemetery to have an Easter sunrise service. She came after spending a sleepless night tossing and tumbling in despair and had not pity on her need for sleep. The grisly scene of the cross haunted her and broke her heart.

She had been a recent convert. Before meeting him her life was miserable and out of control, but then she met Him. She met hope face to face. He hurled shafts of light into her world of darkness and despair. She followed the man who broke her chains of bondage and set her free, but now she was following him to a 6 by 6 hole in the ground. She may have been mad at the world and bitter.

She saw the first Easter Dawn through tear blurred eyes, wet cheeks and mascara that was a runny mess.

Where is God? The only law he ever broke was the Law of Nature when He turned water into blushing wine.

The only theft he masterminded was the body he stole from a cemetery in Bethany. But He was not a grave robber. He was a life giver. Ask Lazarus.

• He didn’t have license to practice medicine, but He healed the sick.
• He never promoted social welfare, but he unhesitantly fed a multitude who were faint from lack of nourishment.
• He might have been guilty of jay walking one day when he crossed the street to minister to a weeping mother following the corpse of her dead son to the burying ground and called the dead son back to life.

Mary’s despair was about as bad as it could get and there was no hope that the situation would get any better. Maybe, just maybe, you are carrying the same luggage that she carried can’t sleep, bitter, suspicious of everyone, confused, distraught and overcome with despair. She found her penicillin for despair, of all places, in an empty tomb!!! You can find your on penicillin at the same place today. The tomb is still empty and Jesus is alive and well.

She came to the tomb perturbed but left in peace.

She came to the tomb full of bitterness but left being blessed.

She came to the tomb full of suspicion, but left without a scintilla of doubt.

She came to the tomb in despair but left being filled with delight.

Calvary is the place where God revealed His love so strong, so unbending, so majestic, and the Resurrection is the place where He exhibited His power so enduring, so pervasive, so imposing and so infinite.

Between His matchless love and infinite power, you can find the answer for your despair.

Thank God! Jesus lives.

Pastor Jimmy & Bob