Easter Sunrises

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.  In their fright the women bowed down with 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; he has risen!" 

~Luke 24:1-6

I have been very blessed to have had the opportunity to spend most of my Easters at the beach...and most Easter mornings attending a sunrise service.  As a child and teenager, I remember throwing the covers back over my head and going back to sleep when Mama would call for me to get up and get ready...5:30, really?  So early!!  Funny, now that I'm 25, I still groaned a little bit at the thought of how early it was...and how cold the wind would be out on the beach. "What if Jesus would've thought it was too early, or He was too tired, or it was too cold?" Of course, leave it to Mama to make a comment like that...and the more I thought about it, I was glad she did.  It got me to thinking...

what if He had felt that way.  

Matthew 26:36-46 gives us a glimpse into the heart of Jesus at the garden the night before His death...

        "Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”  He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.  Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”  Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”  Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping.  “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter.  “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”  When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.  So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.  Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.  Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

....He stayed awake all night...IN PRAYER.  Weeping and pleading with His Father.  And can you imagine how this may have felt for God?  To hear His beloved Son cry out for another way... "but not as I will but as you will."  When I think about this scene in the garden, I see the part of Jesus that was fully man...Our finite minds cannot grasp how someone could be both fully man and fully God, and when I think of Jesus, I lean more towards the fully God part.  But this scene shows me how this affected the mortal man Jesus.  He was "overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death."  

As you read on in Matthew, you read about the horrific events that took place after He spent His night praying... He was arrested, flogged, beaten, accused, spit on, called horrible names, made to carry His own cross, nailed to, and then hung upon that same cross.  And with each step he took, each hateful word spoken, He knew that what He was doing was for them,  for me, for us...  What strength!  The world saw weakness in this Man, but the strength it must have taken to not call down 10,000 angels.  As the sky grew dark over the next 3 hours, and as the earth quaked, and the veil was torn, and the tombs released the bodies of the saints, Jesus breathed His last...  And I think about His precious little Mama, watching all of this, brokenhearted  and in anguish, just wishing she could take His place....

As I walked out on the beach in the dark, all of those verses and scenes played through in my head and my heart.  What He did for me...and it was hard for me to wake up early?  Really?  I felt so guilty and so sorry, but I was so thankful to attend that service Sunday morning.  Because as the sun rose, and the glory of God stretched out across the sea....all I could think about were those angels saying "He is not here, He has risen!"

He is so gracious to have given His life for me...and for you.  I am so thankful for His sacrifice but even more so for that glorious resurrection!  That awesome Easter Sunday some 2000 years ago brought hope...and eternal and everlasting joy to cling to....makes me think of that verse in Psalm, "Weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning."  Or in the KJV... "joy cometh."  What a blessed promise to cling to....

I don't know that I will ever see a sunrise the same...that promise that joy cometh.  Not just in the morning, but in the end, when it is finished, joy cometh, eternally.  Glory!  What a day that will be!

Thanks for allowing me to share my heart.  I did not intend on teaching a bible study or anything, I just wanted to show you some of the glorious pictures from the sunrise on Easter morning.  But I guess the good Lord had other plans...maybe you needed to hear those words today.

 Joy Cometh!