Is God At Rest Or At Work?

Luke 24:1-12: At the crack of dawn on Sunday, the women came to the tomb carrying the burial spices they had prepared.  They found the entrance stone rolled back from the tomb, so they walked in.  But once inside, they couldn't find the body of the Master Jesus.  They were puzzled, wondering what to make of this.  Then, out of nowhere it seemed, two men, light cascading over them, stood there.  The women were awestruck and bowed down in worship.  The men said, "Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery?  He is not here, but raised up.  Remember how he told you when you were still back in Galilee that he had to be handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?  Then they remembered Jesus' words.  They left the tomb and broke the news of all this to the Eleven and the rest.  Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them kept telling these things to the apostles, but the apostles didn't believe a word of it, thought they were making it all up.  but Peter jumped to his feet and ran to the tomb.  He stopped to look in and saw a few grave clothes, that's all.  He walked away puzzled, shaking his head. (The Message)

Have you ever been afraid to go to sleep at night?  What was the reason for your fear?  Was it because of the events of the day you are leaving behind?  Did those events have some kind of impact on you that left you in fear?  Were you afraid to go to sleep because of what you knew was waiting for you in the morning?  As if to say that what the new day will hold strikes fear and terror in your heart.  Was it because you knew that your heart was so worked up that you would not sleep well?  What if it were all of these things?

You are afraid to go to sleep because of what has taken place during the day.

You are afraid to go to sleep because of what the tasks that wait for you the next day.

You are afraid to go to sleep because you are so anxious that you know you will not sleep well.

I feel confident that the women in Luke 24 were afraid to go to sleep.  Much had taken place during the day before them.  Jesus, the one they were looking to as the Messiah, the one who would deliver them from Rome, had been arrested because of one of His own, muscled through an unfair trial, and died on a cruel cross only after having been beaten.

They follow Jesus and watch His body be placed into a tomb.  And they went home for the night.

What a terrible way to end a terrible day.  Everything they had hoped for was gone.  And now they must try to sleep?  How can you sleep with these things tossing around in your heart and in your mind?  How can you rest knowing what has just happened?  How can you sleep knowing what you have to do in the morning?  This is the day of Sabbath; this is supposed to be a day of rest.  But not this week.  The day that has been set aside for us to rest in God has brought us to a place where there is no rest at all!

Often times, as Christians, what keeps us from resting is wondering what in the world God is doing.  We toss and turn and even lie awake, worried about the future and what it is God is up to.  Are you spending sleepless nights worried about what God is doing….or maybe, like in this case, what you think God is NOT doing?

Most of the time we cannot see what God is doing.  If we could see all that God is doing, we would likely not believe it anyway, because God is….God.  God is up to something.  God is doing something, in the darkness of the night.  There is a work stirring that no one can see and, until it is seen, no one could believe.  God, the Father of all life, is breathing resurrection into His own Son!

While the women, and the other disciples, attempt to sleep, God is doing something that will change their lives FOREVER.  It will change the world…FOREVER.  It can change YOU forever.

Now, after a sleepless night of tossing and turning, terrified from the day before and worried about the day ahead, the women get up to accomplish the task that they really don’t want to do: to visit the tomb of Jesus with the spices they have prepared.  Because the day before was so terrible, they did not have time to properly prepare the body of Jesus for burial.

And there they see it….the stone is rolled away.  They have already been wondering what God is up to and now that wonder, that fear, is taken to a new level.  The news they receive upon arrival to the tomb, from an angel, is the news they were not expecting.  God has done something!

While we were attempting to rest in our worry, all we needed to do was rest in God’s work.  God was up to something in the lives of these women.  I can promise you, God is up to something in your life.  God is up to something in your heart. 

God is raising Jesus from the DEAD!  Our days sometimes can keep us from sleeping at night because we are worried about what God is doing or not doing.  But, He is up to something! 

This Easter sunrise, allow the surprise of Easter to awaken you to a new reality – the reality of resurrection.  Allow the power to Easter to bring peace to your heart and life – the peace of resurrection.  Allow the work of God at Easter to bring you rest.  After all, the one who is not dead but alive….He’s the one who said,

"Are you having a real struggle?  Come to me!  Are you carrying a big load on your back?  Come to me - I'll give you rest!  Pick up my yoke and put it on; take lessons from me!  My heart is gentle, not arrogant.  You'll find the rest you deeply need.  My yoke is easy to wear; my load is easy to bear." -Matthew 11:28-30

When we arise this morning, we can arise well-rested because God, the Father of all life and the giver of eternal life, has risen His own Son from the dead.  This gives us reason to say, “We have nothing to fear!  For our God is ALIVE and death is now dead!”

I pray we all will move forward in the power of Easter!

We hear the glorious news, Jesus, that you are alive!  You are not dead!  Yet we come this morning with fears and worries and anxieties that keep us awake a night.  We are unable to rest.  May it be so that what we find this morning, the reality of Your resurrection, awakens us to a whole new world – a world where we can rest and trust in Your work.  We ask that You, once again, defeat the powers of death that hold us down so often.  –AMEN!