5th Sunday of Easter 2024

I’ve been driving around these past few weeks seeing many church signs announcing “He is Risen!”. It’s a great thing to see, but I’m wondering—do we truly realize what that means?  Jesus’ resurrection is the most significant event in human history. As we continue to move through the Easter season, I wonder—how well are we spreading this good news?  

The one thing we all share and most dread is death. Before Jesus’ resurrection, all humans wondered and some speculated about what happens after we die. Religions and philosophies created many possible theories. Do we just die and go into nothingness? Some thought we might go through the life process again and again until we reach some version of perfection (reincarnation). Others believed in an afterlife, but offered any kind of a positive reward for only a select few; but, Jesus and His Father had another idea.  

Jesus beat death—the one thing we all face at some point! Now we no longer have to fear it and wonder about what happens next. His promise for those who truly follow Him as disciples is clear: eternal life with Him, the Father and the Spirit. Are you truly excited about this good news? Jesus is alive! Salvation is now available to anyone and everyone who surrenders to Jesus’ offer to love and serve Him and reap the reward of eternal life—He guarantees it by His resurrection! That is the good news for His obedient and faithful followers and an inconvenient truth to others.

Former Vice President Al Gore published a book a few years ago, An Inconvenient Truth, addressing the threat of climate change. That controversial book talked about the inevitability of a catastrophic threat to earth itself unless drastic measures were taken to mitigate the human effect on the global ecosystem. It garnered a lot of attention and, to a great extent, spurred on the climate change movement. Regardless of how you feel about the supposed facts and premise of the book, it was effective in raising public awareness and elevating the debate. However, it was mostly bad news about what might happen to the earth.   

We have the good and better news for the inevitable event (death) in all our futures. Because Jesus defeated death, we too can face it with confidence that, as promised, He has gone ahead and prepared a place for us. Death is our “graduation day,” our walking through a doorway to an eternal life worth looking forward to. That is a message worth shouting from the rooftops and placing on signs in front of churches!

There are many, however, who even after hearing the good news choose not to follow Jesus. They try to ignore or even deny Him and His resurrection. They can ignore or deny His defeat of death, but they cannot refute it! If Jesus was put on trial for being guilty of rising from the dead, He would be convicted. Hundreds of eyewitnesses saw Him for forty days after He rose. His disciples and especially apostles endured torture and death rather than deny what they knew to be true. Nothing could make them deny the fact of seeing Jesus resurrected.  

So, as we share the Easter message, be confident, be bold, be fearless in bringing the good news to a world desperately in need of a Savior. We know the real “Inconvenient Truth,” Jesus rose from the dead and He’s coming back some day to claim His own. Those of us who know Him can’t wait for that day. Maranatha!