When I was a child, about nine years old, I had a four-wheeler. It was a little blue Yamaha 80. It was small, but fast. My older brother had a slightly bigger four-wheeler, a red Honda 125. With help from our father we built a race track around our property. The track weaved around trees and cut through swampland. It was a child’s dream, but a mother’s nightmare. Our mother would warn us to slow down, but unless she was watching, we wouldn’t listen.
One day, while racing around the track, my brother began to pull away. I held the throttle wide open to try and catch him. As he entered the swampland I saw him slow down for a turn. I decided to try and take the corner full speed to close the gap. As I did so the tires of my four-wheeler lost their grip on the ground and the four-wheeler flipped into the swamp. I was pinned facedown with the little blue Yamaha across my back. The water was shallow, so initially I could breathe. But the more I struggled, the deeper I sank. Eventually, I couldn’t keep my mouth above water.
I can remember the entire incident very clearly, and right up until the moment I couldn’t breathe, it hadn’t occurred to me that I could die. Our sin is like that! We don’t always grasp how much trouble we are in until it is too late. We go through life, day after day, thinking that our sin is no big deal. But eventually it catches up to us. Eventually we realize that we have been driving too fast and we are forced to acknowledge the broken promises, the busted relationships, the failed commitments. Eventually we realize that we are stuck in the mud, sinking, and drowning.
Just as I began to understand the severity of my situation, I felt the weight of the four-wheeler lifted from my back. My brother had returned. Without hesitation he had leapt into the swamp to set me free. When we emerged we were both covered in mud and muck.
2 Corinthians 8:9
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
On Easter morning, nearly 2,000 years ago, Mary Magdalene woke with horrific images of the crucifixion still fresh in her mind. She had seen Jesus stripped naked and tied to a post. She had seen him flogged by Roman soldiers, the veins on his back laid bare. She had seen a crown of thorns woven together and forced upon his head. She had watched as he carried a cross until he could carry it no further. She had seen him nailed to that cross and lifted into the air. She had heard him cry out, “It is finished!” and she had watched as he gave up his spirit.
On that first Easter morning, with those thoughts fresh in her mind, Mary and her friends set out to anoint the dead body of Jesus. They expected to find a stone covering the entrance to his tomb. Instead they were greeted by an angel whose appearance was like lightning and his clothes as white as snow. The angel was on a two-part mission. The first was to roll back the stone and to reveal to the world that the tomb was empty. The second was to announce to Mary and the others, “He is not here! He has risen!”
Jesus had jumped into the mud and muck… and now he had returned. On the cross he took the weight of our sin upon himself and his death set us free.
When I came up out of the swamp I was covered in filth. It is not the same! When Jesus removed our sin, he removed our filth. The Bible tells us that those in Christ appear before God white as snow, as bright as an angel from heaven, spot free. When Mary heard the words “He is not here! He has risen!” the Scriptures tell us that she was filled with great joy. The joy that Mary Magdalene felt nearly 2,000 years ago meets us today. Death could not hold Jesus, and because death could not hold him, death will not hold us! We have been promised eternal life. We have been washed clean. We are bright as lightning, white as snow, for he has risen… just as he said he would.
Rev. Troy Tysdal is Director of Communications and Prayer for the CLB and serves as editor in chief of Faith & Fellowship Magazine.