Looking In All The Wrong Places

This is the reflection sent electronically to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Thursday, April 18, 2019.

SCRIPTURE FOCUS

Gospel: Luke 24:1-12

¹On the first day of the week, at early dawn, [the women] came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they went in, they did not find the body. ⁴While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. ⁶Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” ⁸Then they remembered his words, ⁹and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Reflection

The women were going to Jesus’ tomb to do what women did—preparing the body with spices. But then there was a problem—no body.

I love the words of the two men, who were likely angels, messengers of God. “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” The same could well be asked of us. Sometimes we look for love, good feelings and other benefits of life in places of death rather than life; from the world of advertising that tries to suck us in to feel good through buying, by having the right insurance plans or mortgages Maybe, if we just had a nice boat to enjoy the summer on the lake.

None of these things are bad, but are we looking at them as substitutes for our relationship with God? Are we trying to get the life and peace that only our Lord provides, from sources other than God, in other words, places of death? “Why do [we] look for the living among the dead?”

“Then they remembered his words…” Oh yeah, that’s right. Jesus did say that, didn’t he?

Let us learn from these first proclaimers of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Christ is risen!  Christ is risen, indeed!

Pastor Ivy