Wednesday, March 16, 2016

RISEN - The Victim Good Friday Became the Victor Easter (a blog post for a sermon to be preached at Kenwood Church, Livonia, MI on March 20, 2016)

From Rocky to those improbable victories your kid's little league baseball team won, we have an infatuation with come from behind stories.  We love it when the basketball team come from 5 points down with 2 minutes left to win the game.  We enjoy our team rallying in the 9th to grab victory from the jaws of defeat.  We can't get enough of the Hail Mary play at the end of the fourth quarter in football.  We love to see the improbable become reality.

Resurrection may be the ultimate comeback story.

Our experience tells us that when someone is gone, really gone; they don't come back.  No matter how much we loved them, need them, cherish them, count on them, revere them, they will not come back.  There is a finality in death.

That is why our story, the Easter story, His resurrection story is so powerful.  It takes our experience and turns it on its head.  The ending we have come to accept is not the ending at all.  Not only did Jesus come back like Lazarus, but He came back like no other.  He came back and went to the Father.  He overcame death.  Lazarus came back but did not overcome.  Jesus was victorious over death.  Jesus came back.

That is OUR hope.

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