An Empty Tomb

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Mat 28:6

Nothing evokes sadness like something that is empty. An empty house, once a place of refuge and comfort now is a desolation. Someone somewhere recalls this place with fondness. Someone's childhood is wrapped up in what is now a barren empty place.

It seems as if the previous good accentuates the present desolation. Lively dinners, sleeping children, Christmas mornings are all things of the past. Think of the sounds of a happy house. Children playing, music, first words spoken, prayers offered, now just barren silence. What was once is now no more.

But think of something empty that is glorious! Something that has become the very emblem of life and joy. An empty tomb. Filled it produced such sadness. Despair of the worst kind. So many hopes were placed in Him who now occupies the tomb. All dashed. But empty it not only revives those hopes but firmly establishes hopes greater than ever imagined previously.

Empty it proclaims a MIGHTY Lord! A Lord who can inhabit man's worst abode. We are either dead or crazy if we live in a tomb. Once the Lord leaves it, it becomes the symbol for LIFE! Before Christ, a tomb meant death. It meant sorrow and sadness. Christ transforms it into something wonderful! The very antithesis of death.

Yesterday I taught the 1st and 2grade class. Of course, it being Easter, I taught on the Resurrection. I was telling the boys (no girls yesterday) that as Christians we don't have a temple or a 'holy place' or even a shrine, but what we DO have is an empty tomb. Our faith involves not a place but a person. One young man, Tristan, was incredulous. "You mean there is a real empty tomb?" Then he asked where it was. I showed my great knowledge of the Bible lands and said "Israel". He wanted to know how to get there (plane I said), how much money it would cost (lots) and could he go tomorrow (not likely). I told him that either his parents could take him there or when he became an adult he could go himself. That was all he needed to know. He proclaimed that he was going to save his money and as soon as he could he was going to go see this empty tomb. It was like it finally became real to him.

Christian, we have an empty tomb! It's not really a place but an idea. An empty thing that proclaims great power and might. As a teen it seemed a lot of people always wanted to proclaim their presence with the familiar "Greg was here". Usually in the form of vandalism or graffiti. It was as if God left us a "Christ was here". It is marvelous to see the effects of Christ and how He transforms death into life, barrenness into bounty and weakness into power.

Yet the tragedy today is not an empty house, it is an empty heart. O how my Lord wants to inhabit my heart. To sit on His rightful throne. To bring life and peace. He even deigns to knock. Surely we would be looking out the window just waiting to throw the door open at first sight of Him. And just like the tomb, He will come in and transform your heart into a beautiful garden of life. Where once was bitterness and fear will now spring forth with love and peace.

Become HIS tomb. Let him live in you by dieing to yourself.