Maybe it was a relationship you thought was solid. A job you thought was secure. A future you had completely planned out. And then, without warning, the lights went out.
For Jesus' disciples, that is the Easter story.
Easter for us is now just around the corner. And most of us know the broad strokes. Jesus died on a cross. Three days later, he was alive again. But I think we skip past the part that matters most.
Because somewhere between the death and the resurrection, there was a Saturday. A day where the people who had followed Jesus for three years sat in silence, completely gutted.
These weren't naive people. They were fishermen, tax collectors, everyday working people. Rational thinkers. And they had watched the man they believed was going to change everything get arrested, publicly humiliated, and executed like a criminal.
Everything they had built their lives around was gone.
Can you imagine what was going through their heads? Was any of it even real? Have the last three years of my life been a complete waste? Am I next?
I think a lot of us quietly ask the same kind of questions. Maybe not about Jesus specifically, but about faith in general. Is there actually a God? Is God good? Does any of this mean anything?
Those are honest questions. And they deserve an honest answer.
When word came that the tomb was empty, most of the disciples didn't believe it. One account literally describes the report as sounding like nonsense. But a fisherman named Peter ran to see anyway.
Peter's track record at this point was not great. Hours earlier he had denied even knowing Jesus to save his own skin. He was confused, ashamed, and completely out of hope.
He wasn't running because he had it all figured out. He was running because something pulled him, and he chose to move toward the question rather than away from it.
Peter didn't clean himself up first. He didn't resolve his doubts before he ran. The empty tomb met him exactly where he was, a mess, full of questions; but still running.
Maybe that's where you are today.
Maybe the lights have gone out in some areas of your life. Maybe faith feels like something that belongs to other people. Maybe you've got more questions than answers, and you're not sure if that's okay.
It is. It really is.
You don't have to have it figured out to take a step in this direction. Peter didn't. He just ran toward the question, and the question turned out to have an answer.
So as we approach Easter this year, whatever you're carrying, whatever you doubt, whatever feels finished, maybe today is the day you run toward it instead of away from it. And see what you find.
Rob Wiltshire
Epicentre Church
16°C