Healing Rays of Righteousness

RESURRECTION – NOW WHAT

During “Holy Week” we journey with Jesus and relive the gruesome way we humans crucified the Son of God. We remember the disciples’ experience of being without the Messiah for three long, grievous days. We can barely imagine the depth of grief, sorrow, uncertainty, and fear the disciples experienced.

Then comes Easter Sunday’s “resurrection morning” and we celebrate the glorious truth that the story of Jesus did not end with his death. We rejoice that Jesus’ resurrection from the grave of crucifixion death to triumphant victory over Satan and death, fully completed his salvation work for all of us humans. His glorious resurrection confirmed his promise to us of an eternal new day and new life.

Praise be to God! Christ arose from the dead. He is alive! Jesus Christ conquered death forever. Hallelujah! Praise be to God!

Now what?

There are a variety of answers to that question, but the one answer that I hear overarching all other answers, much like a beautiful rainbow, is heard in Jesus’ first words to his disciples after his resurrection. In fact, it is the “now what” answer I hear whenever I see a rainbow in the sky.

John remembers Jesus’ first meeting with his disciples. “On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you!” As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John 20:19-20).

And one week later, when the disciples were again together with the doors locked and Thomas now present with them, Jesus repeats his sudden visit with the same greeting, “Peace be with you!” Then he invites Thomas to “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:26-27).

Each time I read the post-resurrection stories of Jesus aliveness, the words “Peace be with you,” seem to jump out of the text and I ask myself, why does the risen Jesus repeatedly use this as a greeting when he appears to his disciples?

And then I remember that from beginning to end, Jesus’ life and ministry flowed from this gift of peace.

At Jesus’ birth, the angels shouted words of praise, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:14). It was many years earlier that the prophet Isaiah had announced the coming of a child being born as the “Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6).

I also remember that Jesus told the woman who anointed his feet with her tears and the woman who was healed of her hemorrhage to “go in peace” (Luke 7:50; 8:48). Also, as he spoke to his disciples about his imminent departure, he comforted them by saying, “Peace I leave with you; (John 14:27).

This tells me that these post-resurrection visits by Jesus were no superficial, neighborly visits, but incredibly significant visits to anchor his disciples in the assurance that he will be with them and empower them forever. And so, I hear his first words, “Peace be with you” as being much more than a simple familiar greeting. Instead, I hear them as Jesus giving them a “rainbow” gift.

This “gift of peace” is the first-fruit of the salvation Jesus has sacrificially purchased for them and us in his death on the cross. When he showed these men the nail prints in his hands and the great wound in his side, from which water and blood came, they “were overjoyed.”  Here was the visible evidence of his victory over evil and death that he now shares with them in his “gift of peace.”

Even before his death and resurrection, Jesus told his disciples, “…my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27).

His “gift of peace” takes away the fear that is so much a part of living. It was fear that brought the disciples together behind locked doors. And Jesus enters the room to give them the only thing that can take the fear away and says, “Peace be with you.”

To experience the awesome loving presence of the risen Christ is the best antidote for the many fears that cause us to hide behind locked doors. To see the wounds of his love for us in his hands and side and hear him say “Peace be with you” is the greatest of all joys and the supreme chaser of all fears.

Surgeries fail, businesses go bankrupt, investments evaporate, cancer consumes, relationships end, life is not fair, but the calming and powerful presence of the risen Christ can and does come into our shuttered rooms and darkest valleys, to be God present with us. We are not alone. Peace be with you!

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – April 19, 2023

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY

The physical torture of crucifixion, with its excruciating pain, was designed by the ruling authorities to send waves of darkness and fear into the victim.  But for Jesus there was also the emotional darkness of being ridiculed, abandoned, and rejected by His own people, including His dear friends and disciples.

In earlier days, Jesus had known the joy and happiness of being surrounded by his disciples and the eager crowds. Jesus thoroughly enjoyed his earthly ministry, and delighted in human companionship, even though it sometimes caused him painful disappointment, frustration, and grief.

But the pain of feeling alone, abandoned, and forsaken, that he now felt on the crucifixion cross was deeper and more severe than all the pains that he had previously suffered.

After a whole night of being captured, arrested and led from courtroom to courtroom, being repeatedly questioned and taunted, he was tortured and sentenced to death by crucifixion. His sufferings increased as he was led out to Golgotha and nailed to a cross between two criminals. Jesus had hung on the cross for three hours before noon, and then the heavens went dark and silent, covering the whole world in darkness, “for the sun stop shinning.” (Luke 23:45). 

In their stories of Jesus’ crucifixion, Mark, Matthew, and Luke record that “At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.” (Mk. 15:33). For three additional hours, Jesus suffered the bleeding pains of physical beatings, crucifixion torture, and thirst; now intensified by total darkness.

This unusual darkness was both a physical reality of the world around Jesus, as well as an accurate description of what Jesus was experiencing emotionally and spiritually. As each moment passed, the darkness deepened until it overwhelmed His whole being of body, soul, and spirit, and he could no longer see nor hear his Father.

Jesus felt utterly alone.  There was no one nearby who could fully understand and empathize with him and his suffering? Nobody! We hear Jesus’ heart-wrenching pain when he verbalizes his agony in crying out, “My God, my God, why ….. why this darkness, why have you forsaken me?” 

We ask, where was God on that terrible dark Friday? I believe the scriptures would confirm that God was there on the cross, suffering with His Son as he made the ultimate sacrifice of his life for all the sins of the world. God was there waiting for the moment of victory, when Jesus could loudly declare his salvation work completed, “It is finished. …bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30). 

And in that very moment, God dramatically and gloriously burst forth with earth-shaking light that completely tore apart the temple curtain, opening the way for us humans to experience an intimate relationship with Himself. Furthermore, witnessing this glorious seismic event, caused a centurion to testify, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (Mk. 15:38-39).

Like mine, most everyone’s journey through life is interrupted by unexpected and painful tragedy. And at such times we also may feel that God has forgotten or forsaken us, or that our friends cannot understand what we are experiencing. Such feelings can be a shattering, crushing experience. And that is why I take comfort and am encouraged each time I read the story of Jesus’ crucifixion experience, because it reassures me that Jesus fully understands and identifies with my sufferings.

Furthermore, by his example, Jesus shows us that the way to journey through the painful dark valleys of life, is to cry out, “My God, my God, why?” For when we do, we can find enabling comfort and strength in the Father’s promises of forever presence and overwhelming love for us.

For those of us who choose not to make a quick leap from the wondrous “messianic revealing” light of Palm Sunday to the glorious “resurrection light” of Easter Sunday, the discovery that God is very much present in the awful suffering darkness of Holy Week is most encouraging. For it teaches us, if we are listening, that when we feel most alone, suffering in darkness, God is with us.  As the psalmist declares in Psalm 139 – “Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence? …if I make my bed in depths, you are there.  …even the darkness will not be dark to you;”              Amen!

The words of an old hymn, “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” are now ringing in my ears as my response. May they lead you into appropriate remembrance and worship during Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

“O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down, now scornfully surrounded with thorns, thine only crown! O sacred Head, what glory, what bliss till now was thine! Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call thee mine.”

“What thou, my Lord, hast suffered was all for sinners’ gain. Mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain. Lo, here I fall, my Savior! “Tis I deserve thy place. Look on me with thy favor, vouch-safe to me they grace.”

“What language shall I borrow to thank thee, dearest friend, for this thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end? O make me thine forever, and should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never, outlive my love to thee.”

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – April 5, 2023

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley