Why do you look for the living among the dead?

"He is not here; He has risen!" Luke 24:5-6 is the grand summation of our Christian life. Jesus’ human birth, sinless life, and horrific death lead us to the only hope we have in this world: He arose from the grave.

Ryan and I have been watching The Bible miniseries on the History channel for the past four weeks. The last episode airs on Easter evening where will see Jesus crucified, buried, and raised to life. (Saving the best part for last, obviously.) In my humble opinion, the series has been very well produced. Needless to say, it does not show every detail of the Bible, but the story of the Bible in general is clearly told and has hopefully piqued enough interest for people to study the sole, infallible Word of God on their own.

If nothing else, watching the Bible played out in dramatic fashion has helped paint a picture of what I’ve read for many years. I have read the accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection numerous times, but always seem to gloss over the part where the Roman soldiers actually come to seize Jesus and take Him to Pilate.

I understand the order of events in that Jesus predicts His own death, eats His last meal with His disciples, prays and waits, is betrayed by Judas’ kiss, and is then arrested. I have somehow managed to downplay Peter’s act of defense for His Lord at the time of His arrest. Picture it: they are in the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus has already warned Peter that he will deny him three times before dawn. Jesus is in anguish awaiting His death. The Roman soldiers come to arrest Jesus on behalf of Pilate and at the sight of Jesus being captured, John 18:10 tells us that Peter, “who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear.”

Here’s the pivotal moment. Jesus rebukes Peter and says, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:11) And immediately, Jesus heals the man’s ear. You know, the one who came to arrest him? He healed him. Now I don’t know about you, but my first reaction would not be to heal this man’s ear. This man had come to ultimately drag Jesus to His death. But Jesus healed him anyway and was then taken to Pilate. Wow.

I follow Jon Acuff on Twitter and after watching this scene on The Bible he tweeted, “You came to arrest the false messiah, who then healed your ear. How confused are you in that moment if you’re that Roman guard?” Naturally, that guard was confused. But should acts like this be so shocking to us as Christians? Jesus was just being Jesus. His default is kindness. He didn’t contemplate letting the guard suffer or repay his evil for evil.

When we are wronged, our response should be like Jesus’. Plain and simple- and always easier said than done. Imagine if someone were to betray you, gossip about you, intentionally leave you out, make you feel lesser than, or perhaps come to kidnap you and take you before Pilate to die. What is your default response? Ashamedly, kindness is often not my initial reaction to being mistreated. But isn’t that what Jesus has called us to do? Turn the other cheek? Pray for those who persecute us? This poignant act of love and grace on Jesus’ part in that moment has struck me to my core. While it might have seemed radical to that guard, should we as Christians have expected any less of Jesus? 

As I reflect on the crucifixion and death of Jesus on Good Friday and the eventual resurrection of our King on Sunday; I pray that we will be filled with all the fullness of God. We are the ones who wronged Jesus and put Him on that cross. And yet He bore our sin and shame anyway and looks on us as blameless. He came to heal more than our ear... He healed our soul.

I pray that we may know Christ and the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10) so our default response to others will portray the loving kindness of Jesus. 

He is Risen. He is Risen Indeed.

Happy Easter :)