I remember at the end of Mass, deacons dismissed the congregation with the words “Go forth and tell the good news.” I wonder if anyone ever followed these “orders.” Even more so I wonder if anyone knew what “good news” they were talking about.
Of course, there is no news more awe-inspiring than that someone is raised from the dead, especially after their bodies had been beaten and mutilated beyond recognition.
Yet, if I walk around today saying to people, “Have you heard the good news? Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!” How would they take it? Christians might say “duh I’ve known that since I was a preschooler”. Non-believers might say, “Who cares. That happened two thousand years ago and has no relevance for people today. It’s stale news.”
It is difficult to get excited about the resurrection of Jesus, if we do not experience personal resurrection in the here-and-now. What about people who are sinking into the pit of depression? What about people who are locked up in the tomb of despair about life? What about people who are bound by the chains of grief over tragic losses in their lives? What about people who have become disillusioned by the false claims of this world and are sliding down the slope into the abyss of meaninglessness? These are here-and-now needs for resurrection.
We turn to doctors, psychotherapists, friends, and medicines to raise us from these pits of death. All these solutions are good, and God uses them as his instruments of healing. On the other hand, there is no doctor, counselor, well-meaning friend, or medicine than can raise a person from the dead. Why is it that in our list of remedies we have crossed off the name of Jesus? He is here today, telling us that he loves us and can raise us from whatever pit of darkness we’re stuck in. God must be saddened that so few turn to Jesus and allow him to fulfill his promise to raise them from their current form of death. When people struggle with depression, suicidal tendencies, despair, and meaninglessness are raised up by Jesus from their darkness, then they will have really “good news” to proclaim to our world. People will sit up and take notice.
Let’s be reminded of Jesus’ resurrection (Luke 24:1-12).
“At daybreak on the first day of the week the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus took spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. The found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised.’”
We might ask ourselves, what is the “stone” that needs to be rolled away in my life today—a stone, so heavy that I can’t lift it myself? We might ask who is the person in my life who needs the resurrection power of Jesus to change and heal them? If they are unable to believe, we can believe for them and turn them over to Jesus in prayer.
Jesus is real. He is all-powerful, loves us more than we can imagine, and wants to demonstrate his love for us today. How do I need his resurrection today? Is the stone of doubt, the stone of self-reliance or even the stone of skepticism, standing in the way of my coming out of my tomb today?
We live in days of growing darkness in the world. Chaos, confusion, false gospels, war, and terrorism fill the air. We know that there is only one light, and that light is Jesus. When we allow him to do a new work in our personal lives and fill us with his light, then we will have fresh, relevant good news to share with a despairing world.
