On that first Easter morning the angel at the tomb announced, “He is not here. He has risen!”
In our excitement and wonder at this news, we may fail to hear the rest of the angel’s message.
“Behold,” the angel told Mary and her friends, “he goes before you.”
Does he? Do we let the Lord go before us?
Or do we like to stay about six jumps ahead of him?
Several years ago I enjoyed reading the books of Charlie Shedd (he was the first to analyze “Peanuts” from a Christian perspective). I appreciate Shedd for pointing me to this Jesus-out-in-front emphasis in the Gospels.
In our fast-paced world it’s not unusual for us to be hurrying and worrying, rushing blindly through the day as we race the clock to do a jillion things that often don’t matter all that much. We get to moving so fast that we forget Jesus is supposed to go before us.
This is one lesson of Easter some of us desperately need to learn. If life is to be right for us, Jesus must go first, and we must follow.
In a single Bible word so rich in meaning that our English
translators seldom render it the same, the Scriptures tell us that Jesus
belongs out front. He is the “Prince” of life (Acts
In a special way the Easter sea-son reminds us that our Lord does indeed precede us.
•He goes before us to the cross, showing us how to face suffering with courage and faith, embracing it as a refining fire instead of cursing our hurt as a disaster.
•He goes before us to the grave, teaching us that death is not really the end but in fact the beginning of life.
•He goes before us into life, showing us by his own resurrection that we can die to sin and rise to live new and nobler lives for him.
•He goes before us to Glory, to show us the way and to prepare an eternal place for all who confess his Name and trust in his cross.
“Soar we now where Christ has led / Following our exalted Head; / Made like him, like him we rise, / Ours the cross, the grave, the skies. / Alleluia!”