Well, the beginning of this month has us celebrating our Lord’s death and resurrection. What a great way to kick off spring! Life from death!
Indeed, I think the Gospel message is reflected in nature all around us. Everything that was grey and dull suddenly transform as flowers push out from the dirt and tree limbs begin to bud. The sun shines for a longer period of time and folks who had buried themselves inside start venturing outside.
Springtime really is a breath of fresh air…a season of hope…and our April services will certainly be focusing on that theme and in fact is a continuation of our services at the end of March.
Actually, ours is a faith based on hope…the hope of the resurrection to come and eternal life with our Lord in paradise, and we saw this hope in the story of Martha and Mary a few weeks ago. Two women beside themselves in grief with the death of their beloved brother Lazarus. They had hoped that Jesus would come and heal their brother before he died, but that didn’t happen, and so they focused their thoughts on seeing their brother again at the resurrection. But that’s when Jesus showed up and declared, that, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even he who dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
Now, I’m guessing that a lot of the folks at Lazarus’ funeral might have thought those were some pretty empty meaningless words and perhaps a little insulting given the situation. However, Martha amazingly still confessed that she believed that Jesus held in his hand the keys to life and death, and that God would still give to him “whatever he asked for.” In other words, Martha still had a glimmer of hope even in her desperate circumstances.
If you remember the story…she didn’t have to wait long for her faith to be rewarded. After having the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb, Jesus commanded Lazarus to come forth, and he did!
As our Easter services commence, we will likewise emphasize the hope that we have that we too will one day walk right out of our graves to join other believers to live forever in paradise. A restored earth where the effects of sin will no longer exist and where we will dwell with God forever. A life where there will be no more suffering, pain, grief, or death. A future where the devil, his demons, and all those who willfully chose not to place their hope and faith in Christ, will no longer be around to entice anybody to rebel against our Lord.
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” – 1 Corinthians 13:13
St. Paul wrote a lot about hope as in the passage above, and yet, in that future of which I described, where there won’t be sickness and death, there are a few other things that we won’t experience and one of them is hope. You see, when we are living in paradise with God, we won’t need to have hope, or faith for that matter, because there will be no need for them…for our faith and hopes will have been fulfilled! Of those three attributes of which Paul mentions, the only one that will survive will be love, perfect love. Love for one another and for our God who loves us so much that he sacrificed His only Son to atone for our sins on the cross.
I hope this letter leaves you with a great sense of hope as we begin a new month. I look forward to seeing you all at our Easter week services and on Sunday mornings throughout the month!
Until next month….
Pastor Roloff