Seeking the Living Among the Dead – He Is Risen!...By Jason Soroski

 Seeking the Living Among the Dead – He Is Risen! 

By Jason Soroski

Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’” - Luke 24:5-7

"Why do you seek the living among the dead?"

Within the wonder, glory and excitement that surrounds the resurrection of Christ, this question is the heart of the Gospel. It is what drives our faith and gives us hope in a dark world.

Resurrection Sunday celebrates the most important moment in all of history - the moment death was defeated and hope became alive. The day that those seeking death found life eternal.

For me, it also holds a personal significance.

I was baptized on an Easter morning at the age of seven. Although many memories from that time are fuzzy, that memory remains vibrant and real.

I remember being enveloped by the water, and experiencing the rush of air as I emerged, raised to new life. I remember knowing full well what it all meant - that just as Jesus rose from the dead, I was now being raised to a new and fulfilling life.

At the age of seven, I understood all that.

What I didn't yet understand was the true fullness of that ancient question, "why do you seek the living among the dead?". I didn't grasp all that it meant to the women who heard it, what it meant to seven-year-old me, and what it means to all of us.

The question occurs in Luke 24, which begins on a down note. At the end of chapter 23, Jesus was dead. Which meant that hope was dead.

A group of women had come to his tomb to anoint the body for a proper burial. Their friend had died an undeserved, agonizing death, and had not even been buried properly.

They were now seeking to give a dead man that one last honor.

They were not seeking a miracle. They were not seeking a fulfillment of prophecy. They were not seeking to hear from angels, or to be the first on earth to proclaim the Gospel of a risen Savior.

They were merely in a cemetery seeking a dead man.

As things turned out, they never anointed the body as there was no body to anoint. Just as angels appeared to proclaim his birth, an angel now appeared to proclaim his resurrection.

Yet this proclamation came in the form of a question, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?". Jesus was alive, and all of Heaven already knew what the earth did not.

While we wept, Heaven rejoiced.