8-12-2022

Good Morning!    

                  John 20:19; “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

     The hardest part is the waiting.  I have sat with families while they wait for a loved one who is surgery.  Even the most routine, commonplace surgery is still surgery.  It is the intrusion into the human body with foreign objects and chemicals.  It is controlled, planned, and in a clean environment but it is still placing the human body in an undesired condition.  Even with the most common, it seems that all anyone remembers is those words from the surgeon, “there is always a chance that something can go wrong.” 

   When our youngest son was only about six months old, he had a same day surgery procedure.  It was routine surgery; yet, as we handed our new son to the sweet and kind nurse; she morphed into Nurse Ratched (in my mind) and the wait was on and it was one of the longest waits that I have ever experienced. 

    One of the more difficult events during the wait is the telephone call.  Often, during the procedure, a nurse from the operating room will call to the waiting room to inform the family what is going on during the procedure.  Many families struggle with “the phone call;” it is not uncommon for the family to ask me to do the phone call; they are not comfortable with it.  When there is more than one family waiting, you can see a fidgety jump when the phone rings and the nurse at the station calls out a name to be spoken to.  Cognitively, you know they would never call and tell you something went horribly wrong yet emotionally; it is hard to suppress that thought.

    If you have ever experienced that kind of wait; a wait that involved a period of uncertainty about a loved one; you have had a taste of what the disciples went through on Saturday.  The one whom they loved with all they had, their teacher, spiritual leader, friend, confidante, the one whom they thought was the Messiah, was lying in a tomb, killed in the most horrific and humiliating fashion.  Everything had gone completely wrong, and they knew not what to do.  They were lost, like those sheep that Jesus often spoke of.  You can imagine that, if they would have had clocks, each second would have ticked off slowly and loudly.

    So, when Jesus appeared to them, the first thing he offered them was peace.  He was offering a quiet and confident heart and a content spirit.  His appearance, though not fully grasped yet, meant that everything, from that point forward, was going to be different.  It was different for them, for the people they taught, and it is different for you and me as well.  It was certainly worth the wait!

Lord Jesus, your rest in the tomb has sanctified the tombs of those faithfully departed.  As we wait for your promised return, we celebrate the newness of life that you give us.  We celebrate the peace that we have and the certainty of life everlasting with you.  In your blessed name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret