Saturday Prep Work

Matthew 28:2 [English Standard Version]

2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.

I don't do it every Saturday, but I should. Most often, Saturday is crazy for me - I'm putting last minute polish on what I'll be doing the next day, working through kinks and trying to make things as strong as possible. I usually don't have much still time on Saturday.

But today I'm taking a minute to consider the wonder of an angel sitting on a big, unnecessary rock.

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to have an encounter with God among his people, and I want my heart to be ready for that. The thing that gets me ready for tomorrow isn't all the prep work I do on my class or my sermon, or laying out my clothes so we won't have to deal with that tomorrow.

What gets me ready is God's action so long ago when he emptied a grave.

It set's my heart toward worship if I close my eyes for a moment and remember the God who I have - what he's like, what kind of power he has and to what lengths he is willing to go. He's willing to send his son on a mission into a realm of darkness, to guide him through the world of death and pain but not to protect him from it.

He is a God willing to watch a horror I cannot contemplate without pain. When I imagine the death of my son, my heart locks and screams, NO! He would see the blood fly, listen to the screams and groans of Jesus. He would hear the soldiers laugh and see their terrible smiles, and watch them gamble for his son's only possession - his clothes. He would see the iron driven through flesh and into wood. He would listen to the crowd laugh and point and jeer. He would let this all go on. Because of the kind of God that he is, He will not stop it all.

He would do all of this because I needed it.

I have all this death in me - all these things I've been and done, all this distance I've put between me and my God, all the times I've been angry and let it fly without control, all the times I've been dishonest or manipulative or unkind, all of my lazy or unguarded moments - it was killing me! Sometimes, it feels like it still is.

But it isn't killing me anymore.

Because it killed Him instead.

Oh grief! Oh shame! Oh sorrow beyond understanding! The Prince of Light has died, and I am responsible. Oh horror!

At least, that's how it would be. Except for that angel sitting on the useless rock.

Instead of grief, the angel tells me to rejoice.

He sits on the stone to show me the empty cave that proves that all of my shame has been taken away. The angel on the rock tells me that Jesus is alive and that He has taken it all from me.

Because of the empty grave, it isn't sorrow that passes understanding, but peace!

Instead of horror, I find him showering me with honor - adoption into his own family! The Prince of Light has called me to stand with him as a member of his family and to know his Father as my own.

And now I am ready. I cannot wait for tomorrow to come. I want to worship Him now!