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When the women set off that morning, they surely expected a long day of sorrow. After all, their destination was the tomb of the One they believed to be their Messiah. Now, He was dead. Everything they had expected, all the glory they had waited to see, all the hope He had given them seemed as lost to them as He was.
What inklings might these women have had that the day ahead was no normal day? That even as they walked solemnly toward the garden tomb, the day had already superseded every other day in the history of the world?
How could they have expected to find an empty tomb?
Of course, they knew that death could be overcome. They had seen it, only days before, when Lazarus was called out of his own tomb by Jesus.
“39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”
But, as far as these women knew, Jesus was the one with the power to raise the dead, and He was gone. Maybe it seemed impossible that death could be overcome when Jesus Himself had succumbed to that final fate of all humanity.
I can’t think of a better time to be proven wrong.
Because the tomb was empty when those women came to it. The burial clothes were folded. Angels stood ready to announce the good news.
The best news.
He was not there.
He is Risen.
When the women arrived to the tomb that morning, they found it empty and guarded by an angel.
5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
He lives – Jesus was lived again that very day, and He lives TODAY.
The day of sorrow turned to a day of shock and joy. To learn that death wasn’t all-powerful, that Christ had all power over death – it was a moment that shook the foundations of human experience.
Until that day, death was the end. Until that day, death was inevitable. Until that day, death was a final goodbye.
Until Jesus.
He rose from the dead, His body perfected and immortal, resurrected to His full glory. Jesus lives, and because He lives, we have the promise that we will also live again.
Everyone we know and love, all those we have lost, each and every one of us, will be resurrected just as Jesus Christ was resurrected. He made it possible for us by leading the way.
It was a day of ultimate hope. And each day since then has been filled with that same hope and promise.
He lives.
“We testify that Jesus Christ lives! ‘He is risen’ (Matthew 28:6). Because of Him, we can be guided and strengthened as we bear the burdens we face in mortality. Through our faith in the Savior’s atoning sacrifice, the bonds of sin cannot hold us and the trials that we experience in life will have no lasting power over us. ‘The sting of death is swallowed up in Christ’ (Mosiah 16:8).”
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