He has Risen

DEVOTION

 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

HE HAS RISEN

John 20:1-9

20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

NIV

He has risen, He has risen indeed! Yes it is true, John believed, Peter believed and we believe because they were there and saw it first hand, that Jesus was no longer in the grave, it could not hold him, neither spiritually or physically. Although there is varied beliefs about where he was for those three days spiritually while his body lay in the tomb, there is no variance among all believers that both his spirit and his body were raised from the dead. Although some of the other accounts have some other details John has not included, it was John who was the first one to arrive at the tomb after the women, of course. These women were going to do a more complete embalming of Jesus, because Joseph and Nicodemus had buried Jesus in haste, but John mentions only one because he is going to give a more detailed account of events which occurred to her. But our life lesson, our life application here is the simple fact, well maybe it is not so simple, that Jesus who died, is no longer dead. It is sure that some people just cannot believe he rose from the dead, they cannot believe in Jesus at all. They refuse to acknowledge the existence of God, of Jesus, some claiming all of this is just a hoax, a crutch for weak minded people. They would rather believe hoaxes invented by man, such as climate change or evolution as well as a host of other man-made ideas, all with the intent to improve the state of those who invented them. But Jesus first coming to earth, teaching the truth about God, dying on the cross and now rising from the dead is all about improving the state of others. We believe, and because we do, our state, our condition in life has been improved. We are no longer lost, wandering in a world of human ideas, human confusion, for we now are immersed in the truth. He has risen, he has risen indeed!