When I
was in college, I spent a summer doing mission work in Nebraska. I was with a
group of other college students who would go around to different churches,
doing summer camps for kids and evangelizing the youth. In one church, I was
assigned to the first and second graders…which for me was quite a challenge.
How could I occupy twenty little kids for a whole week? By the third day I had
run out of ideas…and they were bouncing off the walls!
So,
finally, I decided that we would all write letters to Jesus, so we all took out
our construction paper and crayons and wrote these letters to Jesus telling Him
why we loved Him. Then we all went into the church and placed the letters in
front of the tabernacle. I told the kids that if Jesus really liked your
letter, He would hang it on His refrigerator in Heaven. So the kids prayed
quietly for about 15 seconds, before they got antsy and we had to leave.
That
night all of those who were running the camp visited the church – and I realized
I had forgotten to take those letters off of the altar! So I took them off the
altar and we all looked at them – because they were pretty cute.
The next
day, all of my kids had completely forgotten about the letters to Jesus – all
except one boy named Austin. From the moment he got to the church for the camp,
he asked if he could check and see if Jesus had read his letter. I said, no, he
couldn’t wander off into the church all by himself. Maybe later. But for the
rest of the morning, he kept begging me every ten minutes – “Can I go now and
check the church? Can I? Can I? Pleeeeease???”
Finally,
when all of the other kids were at recess, he asked me yet again, so I said,
“Fine, Austin, go ahead, you can run down to the church and check and see if
Jesus read your letter.” So he went…and all the while, I was praying that he
wasn’t destroying hymnals or anything (he was
a 7-year-old-boy, after all!). Finally, after about 10 minutes, I saw him
running back to me, his face lit up, a bright smile, shouting, “Jesus took my
letter!! He’s alive! Jesus is alive!”
Now one
day, Austin is going to realize what I did…but it is my hope that he also
realizes the depth of what he was saying.
This is
a game-changer. He’s alive. If the tomb isn’t empty, then our sins were not
forgiven, then death has not been conquered, then our life is utterly
meaningless. But if the grave is empty, then Jesus is Who He says He is – the
Son of God, Who can take away our sins.
History
rises and falls on this one event. Our very eternal destinies, the meaning of
our lives, hinge upon whether or not the tomb is empty.
You see,
if Jesus was just a good man who taught us about love and then died a horrific
death, then He would be remembered as a hero, but ultimately a failed hero who
didn’t really change that much by His life. Yes, He inspired many people to do
good deeds. But in the end, when we all die, all of our good deeds will be
meaningless, and they will lie in the grave with us.
But if
He really rose, in the flesh, from the dead…what then? Then there’s hope that
we too will live after our death. Then there’s a meaning for the life that we
lead. Then there’s a purpose to this grand thing called the universe – that all
of the messiness of daily life can and will be redeemed in Christ, making our
crazy world a place where we can love God and someday come to live with Him for
eternity.
So what
does this mean for us? If He is alive, this means that we can have a real
relationship with Him. Even now He is calling, knocking at the door of your
heart. Do you want to have a friendship with Christ? It is indeed possible, if
you would simply, in your own words, offer your life to Christ in prayer.
Of
course, if He is alive, then He has every claim over our lives. Our lives do
not belong to ourselves – we are His people, redeemed by His Blood, covered in
His mercy. For this reason, we can no longer indulge in our former sins. We can
no longer waste time pursuing those useless things like money or power or a
comfortable life. Instead, all of our efforts and energies must be used to
glorify Him. If He is alive, then He is our King, and the King of our lives. We
need to seek to please Him in how we spend our time, what and who we love, how
we react to the circumstances of our lives. For example, because Jesus rose
from the dead, we must spend time in prayer and Mass, seeking His will in our
lives. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we must break those addictions in our
lives through the Sacrament of Confession. Because we are living for Christ, we
must be faithful to our wedding vows and sacrificially love our families.
Because we are living for Christ, our time, money, talents, relationships, our
entire lives belong to Him.
But we
only live for Christ because Christ lives. He lives, not just in our hearts and
memories, but really and actually – the tomb is empty. He has risen. And that
changes everything.
No comments:
Post a Comment