Why Are You Looking For Living Things Among Dead Things

There is nothing new under the sun. Everything we experience has been experienced by other people; the same struggles, victories and insights. The solutions are often obvious. We know what we need to do but we don't do it. It could be fear, laziness, or simply a lack of discipline that prevents us from getting there but it really just boils down to whether we want it bad enough. I am going to state something obvious now.

When the women went to the tomb to take care of Jesus' body they were confused when they found the tomb empty:

When they found the stone rolled away from the entrance, they went in. But they did not find the body of the Lord[a] Jesus, and they did not know what to think. (Luke 24:2-4a)

Who could blame them? Was the body stolen? Did the officials move him? What was up with this? Except we can blame them because they had already been told what had happened before it had happened. The angels reminded them:

“Why are you looking in the place of the dead for someone who is alive? Jesus isn’t here! He has been raised from death. Remember that while he was still in Galilee, he told you, ’The Son of Man will be handed over to sinners who will nail him to a cross. But three days later he will rise to life.’ “ (Luke 24:5-7)

The women were confused because they did not remember what Jesus had said. Now I am about to state that obvious thing that I said I would state by stretching this scripture a bit to cover us. Followers of Jesus today get confused because we don't remember what Jesus said. I told you it was obvious.

I don't know why we do it but it seems we are caught up in what everyone else has to say Jesus said instead of knowing what he said for ourselves. But it is more than just knowing. It is also trusting that what he said is the truth and doing it. The words of Jesus are useless statements unless we are going to live them.

Trying to follow Jesus without doing what he told us to do is just going to lead to a lot of confusion. Forgetting what Jesus said is going to leave us with a bunch of dead ends. "Why are you looking for the living among the dead?" There is more to those words than what you might realize. Reflect on them a bit and let the Spirit take you deeper.