Why do Christians care about the empty tomb?  Why was it important for Easter morning to acknowledge that He is Risen?

Jesus wasn’t vaporized out of Pilate’s interrogation or away from the crowd’s shouts of “Crucify Him!”  He didn’t disappear (poof!) off the Cross into heaven on Good Friday or get beamed up like a character from Star Trek.  If you peeked inside the tomb or if there was a hidden grave-cam recording the inside of the tomb on Saturday, His body was still in there.  Dead.  Dead.  Dead.  But by Sunday, He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed! 

Jesus—in His human flesh—died, just as we do.  His body went into a grave just like ours will someday (provided that’s our burial choice). No matter what, Jesus’ humanity was displayed in His ordinary death (with an acknowledged exponentially elevated level of persecution and wrath-bearing none of us will ever see).  We didn’t witness God on the Cross with superhuman characteristics, immune to what He was experiencing, not feeling really any of it.  He was fully human, fully present, and in this respect, Jesus was entirely ordinary in His death.

So what’s the big deal about the empty tomb?  What happened to make it a big deal?  And why do Christians care?

Had Jesus’ body remained in the tomb and only His spirit and soul resurrected, it could be argued that it’s just wishful thinking and He said, she said.  But His body was gone too and people can talk about why He was missing, but the fact remains that He wasn’t there.  He is Risen.  He is Risen Indeed!  We can even go back to what He said before it ever happened:  Matthew 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

The empty tomb is proof that Jesus told us the truth.  He went before us to conquer death and as the Apostle Paul explains, to usher in a resurrection hope (1 Corinthians 15). Without the resurrection, we’d still be lost in our sins and victims of death forever.  But Jesus is also the One who paved the way for us by His resurrection as the first and best.  He’s preparing a place for us (John 14:1-3) and we will follow and be resurrected too.  And all this is why the empty tomb is still a most remarkable event in the history of the world.  In Christ our hope is found because He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!

It’s the final day of Lent, often called Holy Saturday, and our Lent devotional series Light: There’s Nothing Like It is drawing to a close.  The true Light upon the earth was extinguished in Jesus’ death.  There is nothing but darkness and silence almost as if people consider Saturday just a filler in Holy Week.  Jesus is off Good Friday’s Cross but not out of Saturday’s tomb.  

Is Jesus doing nothing, perhaps, but resting? 

Like a Sabbath after the work of the Cross? 

What do we make of this Holy Saturday, Holy Silence?

It isn’t until the pensive darkness descends upon us that we realize the impact Light has made upon us and our world.  We can wish for the night to end.  We can pine for the sunshine to blind us again with its brilliance. 

But we will wait in the darkness.  We will watch for the dawn.

For now, we have a reminder of death.  Of the grave.  Of human sin so bad that Jesus was compelled by the love of the Father to die.  We have only a memory of His Light, His life, His love, His mercy, and His grace.  But for this one day each year we pause in the Holy Saturday, Holy Silence to remember He was once dead–cold, dead, and buried. 

Isaiah 60:2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.

His body was in the grave, but He was in “paradise” along with the repentant thief (Luke 23:39-43).  His body would be raised Easter morning, but let’s not be too eager to rush there headlong, forgetting the darkness of Holy Saturday and in doing so, fail to appreciate the true significance of the Light of the World and how much we need Him and the Light He brings.

Fun Fact of Light:  Bits of light and color. It takes more bits to make pixels of color than just black and white.  What are bits?  They refer to color depth, the number of color values, subpixels within a single pixel in an image. Color depth ranges from 1 bit (black-and-white) to 32 bits (which can form over 16.7 million colors).

How Stuff Works writes, “a display that operates in SuperVGA (SVGA) mode can display up to 16,777,216 (usually rounded to 16.8 million) colors because it can process a 24-bit-long description of a pixel. The number of bits used to describe a pixel is known as its bit depth.

With a 24-bit bit depth, eight bits are dedicated to each of the three additive primary colors — red, green and blue. This bit depth is also called true color because it can produce the 10,000,000 colors discernible to the human eye … To create a single colored pixel, an LCD display uses three subpixels with red, green and blue filters. Through the careful control and variation of the voltage applied, the intensity of each subpixel can range over 256 shades. Combining the subpixels produces a possible palette of 16.8 million colors (256 shades of red x 256 shades of green x 256 shades of blue).

Loring Chien, electrical engineer says, “If you are looking at a plasma or a true light emitting diode display then it takes power to turn on the three colors to make white.  And no power to make black.  But if you are looking at a LCD display with a LED backlight or a conventional backlight, then the backlight is on at all times for all pixels. The LCD pixels become transparent or opaque to allow white light through or stop it for a black pixel.”

For Further Thought:

• If Jesus is the backlight, the true Light, shining even beyond the grave, then power to stop His light was only there while death still had the upper hand.  Death had the upper hand only at the Cross and only because Jesus humbled Himself to it as the Father’s will.
• Read John 2:18 Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” 20 The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
• But was Jesus just resting on Holy Saturday or was that when He was displaying His triumph over death?  Read Colossians 2:13-15,  1 Peter 3:18-20 and Hebrews 9:27-28 for insight.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your shed blood.  Thank You for being sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people for all time.  Thank You for Your promise to return.  May we be found faithfully watching for You in that Day.  Amen.

I always find myself wondering if anyone watching the events unfolding as Jesus was betrayed and scourged and crucified…”Didn’t anyone have a conscience to bother them about what was happening?”  It was a black Friday for the conscience, a Good Friday for what Jesus did with it.  He paid it all.

In the world of retail, Black Friday is the symbolic date at which retailers make up their expenses, get out of a balance sheet running in the red (debt) and emerge to a positive accounting.  In the Christian world, Good Friday is, in fact, the day in which our sins were paid in full and we can receive that positive accounting going forward by faith because Jesus died for our sins.  Our debt was paid.

1 John 1: 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

Purified from sin!  That’s what happened on Good Friday, Black Friday.  The Son of God, the Light of the World, was extinguished from our visible sight.  He did battle against death as His true Light invaded a place we did not see for the deepest darkness.  His Light turned our Black Friday into a Good Friday.

Luke 23:44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. 

When the sun stopped shining and darkness came upon the land (as recorded in Luke 23:39-48), did no one think about what they were doing? 

Do we?

Fun Fact of Light: Projecting Black.  Have you ever wondered how a projector showing a movie or a display monitor of a computer could project the color black?  Physicist Dr. Christopher Baird explains,

Our human eyes and brains are designed to evaluate a color based on how it looks relative to the colors of the surrounding objects, rather than based on the absolute spectral content of the color…. When you turn on the room lights, you flood both the black and white regions of the projected image with white light, thereby decreasing the contrast between dark and light in the image…The fact that we watch projected movies in darkened rooms is direct evidence that projectors can’t emit literal black, but instead emit dim white light which is interpreted as black when the contrast is high enough.

For Further Thought:

• When viewed next to the purity of Christ, His holiness, His perfection, and His divinity, how does anyone look with respect to sin? 
• Many people tend to have a sliding scale with Mother Teresa on one end and Hitler on the other end in terms of goodness and depending on our actions we can slide toward Mother Teresa or Hitler.  How does God view this sliding scale? 
• Read Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.

Lord Jesus, we’re sorry that human sin ruined our relationship with God Almighty.  We’re sorry that we caused it and that You were sent to die because of it.  And yet, Lord, we’re grateful that You didn’t count our sins against us, but that You died so that we should no longer live for ourselves but for You and Your glory. Thank You Father that it is through the Son we receive this gift of reconciliation.  (2 Corinthians 5:15-19). We praise You that our Black Friday can be such a Good Friday because of Your victory over death and canceling the written code that stood against us, reminding us of the folly of believing we could be good enough to enter heaven on our own.  Thank You, Jesus, for redeeming us anyway.  Amen.

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It’s Maundy Thursday.  In the progression of the final week of Jesus’ life, it’s getting dark, really dark.  He knows He’s nearing the end of His earthly ministry so He observes His final Passover with His beloved disciples, one of whom will betray Him.  Jesus takes the bread and the cup and transforms the Passover feast into the Eucharist (Communion) and a New Covenant in His blood that He shares with the traitor, His betrayer, as well as the remaining disciples.  It’s getting dark and they all ask, “Surely not I, Lord?” 

It’s a dark, dark Thursday so Jesus offers hope that even when His death is around the corner, He will rise and rescue the godly:

2 Peter 1:19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts…2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—

9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

Fun Fact of Light:  Not really fun, but in keeping with the darkness of Maundy Thursday (or Good Friday) tradition: the Tenebrae.  The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship explains the Tenebrae:  “A Service of Shadows

The service of Tenebrae, meaning “darkness” or “shadows,” has been practiced by the church since medieval times. Once a service for the monastic community, Tenebrae later became an important part of the worship of the common folk during Holy Week. We join Christians of many generations throughout the world in using the liturgy of Tenebrae.

Tenebrae is a prolonged meditation on Christ’s suffering. Readings trace the story of Christ’s passion, music portrays his pathos, and the power of silence and darkness suggests the drama of this momentous day. As lights are extinguished, we ponder the depth of Christ’s suffering and death; we remember the cataclysmic nature of his sacrifice as we hear the overwhelming sound of the “strepitus”; and through the return of the small but persistent flame of the Christ candle at the conclusion of the service, we anticipate the joy of ultimate victory.”

For Further Thought: 

Back in 2001, I saw the cartoon from today’s photo in a Minneapolis newspaper.  It depicted the Tenebrae flames extinguishing and branches falling off a menorah with the resulting branches forming a Cross.  Online it was captioned “Good Friday BC Comic Strip:  A strip published on Easter Sunday in 2001 drew protests from Jewish groups and led several newspapers to drop the strip.”

I was taking a class called “Reading Each Other’s Mail” for Jews and Christians.  The conservative rabbi instructor took offense saying its meaning was “Lights Out for Judaism.”  What do you think of his take?  Read the following for insight

• Matthew 5:18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
• Hebrews 9:15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance– now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
• Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Father, how we praise You for Your plan of redemption, of fulfilling everything You said in prophecy about the Messiah, and fulfilling it in Jesus Christ.  Thank You for this gift of Love, immeasurable, priceless, and everlasting.  Thank You for Your grace, seen in the face of our Lord and Savior whose sacrifice for our sin we remember with sorrow and joy at this season of the year particularly.  On a dark, dark Thursday, Lord Jesus, You said to remember You.  We remember and gratefully call You, “Lord.”  Amen.

Parents hate it when their kids fight.  Unless that parent is our Father in heaven and the fight is the good fight of the faith, embracing His cleansing Light.  Fighting that fight is good because perseverance in our good confession brings glory to God.

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which God will bring about in his own time– God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

* * *

I’m glad Jesus didn’t give up in the Garden of Gethsemane…throw in the towel, so to speak…or wilt under pressure.  I’m really thankful that He didn’t capitulate to human rulers and deny Himself under penalty of scourging and death. 

It’s called Passion Week because of the sufferings of Christ.  These days, people prefer the term “Holy Week” which—while true—lends a different nuance.  I think many modern people don’t like the idea of the suffering Servant (Isaiah 53).  They don’t like blood.  They don’t like sacrifice.  They don’t like the grisly notion that their sin is so bad that Jesus had to die.  Holiness sounds so much better and can feel easier on our uneasy consciences.  It doesn’t point directly to the depth of our sin. It just points to the beauty of God’s perfection.  Except for one thing: Cleansing!  Hebrews 9:22 “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

If you want to be forgiven, that means cleansing, and that means…blood…of the perfect Lamb of God.  Christ’s blood shed for you.

Fun Fact of Light: It disinfects!  There’s bleaching and cleansing!

• Fabrics: NaturaLux explains, “UV rays (found either in sunlight or artificial light such as fluorescents) act as a bleaching agent. Through a complex process, UV rays transform the water found in all fabrics into hydrogen peroxide, (a common bleaching agent) that leads to the fading of dyestuffs. High energy photons of light, typically found in the ultraviolet or violet spectrum, can disrupt the bonds in the chromophore (a chromophore is the part of a molecule that is responsible for its color), leaving the resulting material colorless. “
• Water:  “Using ultraviolet (UV) light for drinking water disinfection dates back to 1916 in the U.S. Over the years, UV costs have declined as researchers develop and use new UV methods to disinfect water and wastewater. Currently, several states have developed regulations that allow systems to disinfect their drinking water supplies with UV light.” 
• Hospital Rooms:  “Germicidal ultraviolet light is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is particularly effective at killing bacterial and viral agents. No known pathogen can withstand prolonged exposure to UVC light, [and]…most contaminated areas can be serviced at a guaranteed three to six log disinfection confidence level in 20 to 30 minutes. Rooms are ready to occupy and use immediately.” 

For Further Thought:

• Read Jeremiah 2:22 Although you wash yourself with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Sovereign LORD
• How does the Light of Christ “disinfect” our lives from sin?
• How does it remove even the stubborn stain of guilt and offer forgiveness in its place? Read Hebrews 10:1-22 for insight.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your shed blood on the Cross.  Thank You that Your sacrifice cleanses once for all time and that when we encounter You by the gift of faith, we can be forgiven by Your grace.  We praise You for the abundance You give, even the faith to enter a relationship with You.  Thank You, Father.  Thank You, Jesus.  And thank You, Holy Spirit, for Your refining fire at work in our lives.  Amen.

The end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it is a concept we’ve probably known since Noah survived the Flood.  Having witnessed the end of the world as he knew it, it wouldn’t surprise him to see it happen again.  After all, it’s easier to believe something so horrible happening a second time than to imagine it ever happening for the first time.  That day, the Last Day of all last days, is coming.  Jesus talked about it (Luke 17:26-30) and so did the Apostle Paul.

1 Thessalonians 5:1 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.

It’s Passion Week on the Church calendar and a time we remember what Jesus did so that we would not be “appointed to suffer wrath [in that Last Day] but to receive salvation” through the Son of God.  The world was bad.  So Jesus came.  The world was still bad when the Apostle Paul encouraged the Christians enduring persecution.  The world has gone from bad to worse now, but children of the Light, children of the Day do not need to be afraid.  After the Cross, there is victory!

Fun Fact of Light: Solar Flares.  According to SpaceAnswers.com,   The Sun has reached its solar maximum where its surface should be peppered with sunspots and erupting with solar flares and coronal mass ejections but, according to spacecraft, our star hasn’t been this inactive since 100 years ago. It has released the odd solar flare, however, and you can learn more about them here:

1. The fastest ejections reach Earth in less than two days.  Solar flares are sometimes accompanied by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), huge outpourings of energy and material that travel at up to 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) per second.
2. They release ten million times more energy than a volcano.  A volcanic eruption pales in comparison to a solar flare. In a matter of minutes a solar flare, thought to be caused by magnetic fields, can eject billions of tons of charged particles.
3. During peak times there are over 20 solar flares a day.  When the Sun is at solar maximum, the period in its 11-year cycle when its activity is at its highest, the Sun can unleash over 100 solar flares every week.
4. They are almost as hot as the core of the Sun.  A solar flare can have a temperature of several million Kelvin. For comparison the hottest natural temperature ever recorded on Earth was a relatively measly 330 Kelvin in Death Valley, California.
5. A solar eruption once knocked out a power grid in Quebec.  In March 1989 a huge CME, one of the largest on record, caused a geomagnetic storm in Earth’s atmosphere that crippled the Hydro-Quebec power grid in Canada.

 Just this past week our Sun’s inactive status changed.  According to Space.com:

The sun has unleashed three intense solar flares in just two days — each one stronger than the last — in an unexpected uptick in solar activity.

The flares began on Sunday (April 2), when the sun fired off a moderate, M5.3-class solar flare. A stronger, M5.7 solar flare followed later that same day. Then, today (April 3), the sun erupted with an M5.8 flare. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft captured video of the flares as they occurred.

For Further Thought: 

• How might living with an awareness of the Last Day be helpful to our living as children of the Light, children of the Day?
• How does complacency set in?  What does it say about faith?

Thank You, Jesus for pointing us forward to the day of Your return and a day of judgment.  Thank You for dying on the Cross so that Christians do not need to fear that day.  Thank You for Your mercy and grace.  Thank You for the joy we can have in You.  And we thank You for the privilege of calling You “Savior!”  Amen.

Have you ever bought canned Lite fruit at the grocery store?  Sometimes, it’s real fruit packaged with fruit juices and no added sugar.  Sometimes it’s real fruit packaged with an artificial sweetener.  It’s pretending to be healthful when really, it’s not the real thing. 

The Christian life can be the same way.  Real fruit and nothing but fruit.  But sometimes there are pretenders compromising a little bit here and a bit there and in the end, not being just fruit.  That life lacks wholeness and frankly, integrity. 

That’s what today’s passage speaks about when it talks about the fruit of the light.  For emphasis today, I’ve chosen the paraphrase (instead of a translation) of Ephesians 5:1-16 from The Message.

5: 1-2 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that…

5 You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them—the usual variations on idolatry—will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God.

6-7 Don’t let yourselves get taken in by religious smooth talk. God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with him. Don’t even hang around people like that.

8-10 You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You’re out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain. So no more stumbling around. Get on with it! The good, the right, the true—these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.

11-16 Don’t waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness…So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!

It is true that we’re in desperate times—times that are revealing the authenticity and integrity of self-proclaimed Christians. 

Do you display fruit of the light, or just Lite fruit? Is your light slowing down?

Fun Fact of Light:  Can light be slowed down?  According to Physlink.com  Gary Russell replies, “The short answer is No. Einstein’s theory of special relativity is based on the idea that the speed of light is always constant. However, we CAN make it take longer for light to travel a set distance. In fact, we say that light travels more slowly in optically dense media. That statement is somewhat misleading…The delay between the time that the atom absorbs the photon and the excited atom releases as photon causes it to appear that light is slowing down.”

Gregory Ogin says it this way: “This apparent slowing of a light wave is responsible for the way light bends as it enters mediums like glass and water…Prisms work because of the fact that different wavelengths of light have different speeds in the material, and so get bent different amounts. The different colors composing “white” light get bent differently as they go through a prism, and the resulting separated colors form the rainbows you generally see coming out of prisms. “

For Further Thought:

• As you re-emit the light of Christ to the world, is it the full-hued light of Christ or something less?
• If the purity of the media through which light passes determines the “fruit of light” then what kinds of things can keep us from displaying the full-hued light of Christ and end up with Lite fruit instead? 
• What are some of the easy concessions that Christians make which serve to compromise our integrity?

Thank You, Father, that Your Son Jesus “is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Hebrews 1:3).  We thank You, Jesus, for pressing on to the Cross and laying down Your life so that we might have true life in You. Help us never to compromise our Christianity and never to deny You under threat of persecution or opposition.  Grant us strength since these are desperate times!  Amen.

Matthew 21:1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: 5 “Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'”

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the palm trees and spread them on the road.

9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!”

10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” 12 Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.'” 14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. 16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise’?”

Throughout this 2017 Lenten devotional series, Light: There’s Nothing Like It, we’ve seen that light is an amazing creation and a very apt metaphor for everything from witnessing to righteousness, from the hope of the Gospel to the assurance of salvation, and from the Christian community’s relationship to the world to that same dark world’s relationship to Christ Himself.  Light’s relationship to darkness is as different as day and night.

In a passage of Scripture that’s often used in characterizing the relationship of people considering marriage, the Apostle Paul writes,

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)

We’re approaching Palm Sunday and the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem.  The light of Christ was invading the very spiritual epicenter where the darkness of evil would stage its most desperate–and most futile– attempt at overcoming the Son of God.  That battle was waged at the Cross, but Christ would have the victory!

John 2:23 Now while Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

Jesus knew that relationship isn’t about what others can do for us or what we can do for them.  True relationship of light to darkness is that light invades and permeates.  Light changes the darkness and when we encounter Christ, we come to understand the ground is level at the foot of the Cross.  No sinner could save himself; no sinner is beyond God’s ability to save.  Jesus is the Son of God and for us to have a relationship with Him, we must be changed, born again.

Fun Fact of Light:  It radiates, it refracts, and it reflects.  That is the principle behind sci-fi cloaking devices, something that is on its way to being reality at certain wavelengths of light.  According to the MIT Technology Review,  “To become invisible, an object must do two things: it has to be able to bend light around itself, so that it casts no shadow, and it must produce no reflection. While naturally occurring materials are unable to do this, a new class of materials called metamaterials is now making it possible.”

In fact, a firm in Israel has been working on such a metamaterial, a nanotechnology, a so-called “stealth paint.”  According to the Israel National News, it has far more uses than just military ones, but  “This is how it works. Any object coated with the paint is enveloped by the nanotechnology used to produce the material.  When electromagnetic waves are sent out by radar to sense whatever is entering its defense field, those radio waves are absorbed by the painted object, and then subsequently released back into the atmosphere as heat energy.

“The changed electromagnetic waves return to their source which would normally register the distance of the object, as with sonar in a medical ultrasound test, but there aren’t enough of them to make an identification on the radar screen.”

For Further Thought:

• In what ways will a Christian be different for encountering the Light?  In what ways are we the same?
• For insight, read Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is– his good, pleasing and perfect will.
• How does our ability to absorb and reflect the light of Christ make us no longer part of this dark world?

Father, thank You for knowing what’s in our hearts and loving us anyway.  Thank You for sending Jesus while we were still sinners, and because we were sinners without hope.  Thank You, Jesus, for Your death on the Cross, for paying the price of our redemption.  Thank You, for the transforming power of Your Holy Spirit, making us a whole new creation.  May we reflect Your Light and Your glory.  Amen.

Do you ever feel like giving up?  Just throwing up your hands and saying this whole Christian thing just simply isn’t worth it?  Maybe you’re under spiritual attack or even persecution. Maybe you’re just plain tired.  In those moments of temptation and feeling under pressure, I remember the journey Jesus embarked on.  Pressing on to Jerusalem.  Pressing on… into the crowds shouting ‘Hosanna!’ Pressing forward to the Cross.  Pressing into the will of the Father.  Pressing against death.  And pressing on His way to victory!  All the while preaching the Gospel by His actions and spreading His Light.

2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 

When we are pressed on all sides, we need to be pressing on into the Light! 

Fun Fact of Light:  Light can move objects.  Consider Crooks Radiometer-a gadget resembling a weather vane/ windmill of sorts inside a glass enclosure-which you can see in this video.  According to AweSci,  “The correct explanation was given by a  prominent Anglo-Irish innovator, Osbourne Reynolds. He explained …Due to a temperature gradient formed, the air starts moving along the surface from colder to the warmer side through the edges. The net pressure difference around the vane is created which pushes it in a direction that is away from warmer air and towards the colder air – makes sense for the apparatus.  This is the reason, if it is cooled, it moves in the opposite direction.”

Popular Science says about the sci-fi notion of tractor beams that “Moving objects with powerful light is not new — researchers have long been using optical tweezers to pluck bacteria-sized particles and move them a few millimeters. The U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, won his Nobel Prize for work with optical tweezers. But Andrei Rhode and colleagues at the Australian National University say their new laser device can move glass objects hundreds of times bigger than bacteria, and shove them a meter and a half (5 feet) or more. Rhode says the 1.5-meter limit was only because of the size of the table where he placed his lasers — he thinks he can move objects up to 10 meters, or about 30 feet…The system needs heated air or gas to work, so in its present incarnation it wouldn’t work in space — sorry, Star Wars fans.” 

For Further Thought:

• How might your light, sharing the Gospel, move people?
• Is oxygen required?  How?
• How is the life of Jesus revealed in us?

Father God, thank You for the message of the Cross.  A light shining in darkness so that we might attain the light of salvation through Your Son Jesus.  Thank You, for the hope we have and the hope You give, so that even though we are pressed in this world we can press on through the power You provide!  Amen.