But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.”
Matthew 28:6(ESV)
Today’s passage is very familiar to most of us. In fact, since we know it so well, we may be tempted to not read and think about it much. But let’s take a few minutes to think about what is unfolding here.
Even though God’s prophets have been telling that the Messiah would come to live on earth and that He would be crucified, die, and be resurrected, they still didn’t understand what was going on.
When Jesus was crucified, those who followed Him thought He was dead forever. So, when the women came to the cave where Jesus’ dead body was laid to prepare the body with oils and spices, they expected to find His body wrapped in burial cloths.
I suspect that if we were among the women who came to the grave that morning, we too would have thought someone had stolen His body. And seeing an angel would have certainly frightened me. But the angel said, “Do not be afraid … [Jesus] is not here, for he has risen.” The angel told the women to go tell the disciples what they had seen and heard and to tell them they would see Jesus in Galilee.
The following verses tell us the women left quickly with fear and great joy (verse 8) and they ran to tell the disciples the good news. I imagine as the ladies were on their way to talk with the disciples that they may have been asking each other, “Was that really an angel?” “Did I hear the angel correctly—Jesus is not dead?” as they tried to process and make sense of it all.
Now that we have walked through the events, let’s look more closely at the bottom line of this event that makes Christianity different from any other religion—God’s redeeming work on the cross by which our sins are atoned (paid for).
Charles Wesley wrote a wonderful hymn, Christ the Lord is Risen Today. In the second stanza we sing an awesome truth about Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection:
Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia!
Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!
Sadly, we sometimes sing these words without giving much thought to what we are singing. When we sing “Love’s redeeming work is done,” do we understand what it means?
To answer this question let’s start by looking at what the Bible says about God’s love. “Love” did the “redeeming work.” Many times I hear or read articles, books, or “Christian” song lyrics about us loving God—a very important part of our lives as Christ-followers. However, we could not love God if He didn’t first love us (1 John 4:19).
The first couple of lines of a beautiful hymn by Paul Gerhardt, Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to Me, tells us about the love of Jesus:
Jesus, Thy boundless love to me,
No thought can reach, no tongue declare;
The love of Jesus has no limits or bounds. It is so great that our finite minds cannot even begin to understand or quantify it, nor can we come up with adequate words to describe it.
Romans 5:8 tells us, But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. John describes the depths of God’s love by saying, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17).
Now let’s look at the John 19 account of Jesus’ death on the cross. In verses 28-30 we read, After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (ESV).
When Jesus said, “It is finished” He meant that He had completed everything that Father God had sent Him to earth to do. A handwritten note in one of my Bibles says, “Mission accomplished.”
What was Christ’s mission? To redeem us—those held in bondage by and to sin. All of us are sinners who cannot make ourselves right with Holy God. Our sin has separated us from God. There is nothing that any of us can do to redeem or buy our freedom from our sin.
But, merciful, loving, gracious God provided our redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:4-9). Only Jesus Christ, who walked this earth as fully God and fully man could redeem us. The “redeeming work” of Jesus Christ does for us what we can never do on our own—reconcile ourselves to God.
So, on the cross, Jesus was saying that the debt of sin each person owed to God the Father was paid for and entirely wiped out for all eternity. 1 Peter 1:18-19 says it this way, knowing that you were ransomed [redeemed] from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
God, through the shed blood of His Son Jesus, redeems the lives of those who trust in Him from eternal damnation and wrath by bringing us into His family and calling us His children.
Prayer: Gracious Heavenly Father, thank You for loving us so much and for sending Your Son to live upon this earth as fully God and fully man so that He could take the punishment we deserve for our sin and redeem us. Help us learn to rejoice in the completion of Your redeeming work. May it propel us to share the Good News with all those with whom we come in contact. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Ponder this: “Love’s redeeming work is done! Alleluia!”
Click to Tweet: “Love’s redeeming work is done! Alleluia!” #Resurrection #He is risen! #Easter
Empty Tomb Image by TC Perch from Pixabay
Cross Image by Germán R from Pixabay
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