Spring is the season of new beginnings. The air becomes filled with sweet fragrances as flowers begin to bloom. Gardeners prepare their land for the bounty of vegetables they will soon be harvesting. The earth seems to become alive again.
For us, as followers of Jesus, Spring also brings a wonderful reminder of the sacrifice He made, so that we, too, could have a new beginning. I can only imagine the despair of the disciples as they faced the reality of Jesus' arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. After dedicating their lives to Jesus during His earthly ministry, one can only imagine the horror they felt at the sight of Him nailed to the cross. They had not grasped the real reason Jesus had come. It was not to set up an earthly kingdom to overthrow the Romans. The kingdom Jesus was ushering in was a spiritual kingdom--one designed to save people from spiritual death. It wouldn't be until after He was resurrected that all the pieces began to fall together for the disciples.
Early the morning of the third day after the death and burial of Jesus, Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb where Jesus had been placed. The large stone that the soldiers had put at the entrance had been removed. She ran to find Simon Peter and John and told them what she had found. They raced to the tomb only to find that the body of Jesus was gone.
The Bible said in John chapter 20 that the disciples did not know yet that He must rise from the dead. While Peter and John left and went home, Mary stood at the tomb weeping. As she looked inside, she saw two angels in white sitting at the head and feet of the place where the body of Jesus had been. They asked her why she was crying and she said because someone had taken away the Lord's body and she didn't know where they had put it. It was only moments later that Jesus revealed Himself to her.
There is no way we can comprehend the feelings Mary, the disciples, and the other followers of Jesus had when they actually saw Him walking around after His death on the cross. The Bible says that Jesus had to show them His hands, feet, and side in order for them to believe it was really Him. But we can't be too hard on the disciples. How do we know how we would have reacted? We have no way of knowing, but we do know how Jesus feels about us today who believe in Him. In John 20:29, Jesus tells Thomas, "..because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."
I hope and pray that Easter continues to be the most important holiday in the life of all believers. May we never forget what was accomplished on that cross, and the responsibility we have not only to respond to it but to share it with others.
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