He Is Still Risen

Mark 16:1-8

"Trembling and bewildered." That's how the women who came to the empty tomb left. They had encountered instead of a dead corpse, a man in a white robe who said some strange things about their executed rabbi.

"Trembling and bewildered." Sometimes that's how I am. I get in moods where I am confused and stressed and all kinds of messed up for no real reason. I try to seek God, but he is not in the usual readings, the routine prayers, or the everyday reliabilities. I thought I could depend on God to be there! Where is God hiding?!

Turns out he is risen. Like the women searching for their master in a tomb, expecting to find a harmless and useless dead body, we sometimes expect God to stay in our own little Christ-boxes. We get so used to meeting God in certain places that we forget to seek him everywhere and everywhen. God does not stay in one place. He is alive and moving. We get addicted to keeping God in one setting, be it a type of devotional, a worship experience, or a prayer mode. We actually trap Jesus in tombs! We expect to lock him in there for when we need to find him quick without searching, but Jesus is a Lord of life and transformation, constantly beckoning us deeper and in new ways.

Jesus isn't going to stay in our tombs. When we come to find him, he will be up and gone, and we will act "trembling and bewildered" because our foundation is shaken. Jesus isn't far away though. He just wants us to seek him always and everywhere, not on our terms, but on his. I mean, come on, who's more in the know about what's going on? He IS God...

So when you're feeling "trembling and bewildered," don't give up like God's abandoned you. He is risen! He is alive and waiting for you. Just call his name and you won't be far away! Christ is risen from the tomb of our control! May we also rise to life anew!