What comes
to mind when you hear the word “overwhelmed”? We’ve all felt something akin to
being overwhelmed; at work, with homework, with fatigue, with anxiety and fear,
with financial woes, with spiritual attacks on our minds & hearts
Overwhelmed…think of the tsunami in 2004 a 40 foot wall of unstoppable
water traveling at over 100 miles per hour hot Southeast Asia. What about an
F-5 tornado that is a mile wide and looks like a could on the horizon? One hit
Waco, TX in 1953. It overwhelmed the downtown…
I lived through a category 4 hurricane in the early 1960’s. Homes were
overwhelmed. One neighborhood was merely a collection of foundation slabs I’ve
seen videos of the effects of an atomic bomb and the shock wave it sends out.
Houses, wood & brick buildings swept away like straw…overwhelmed. Then
there is the diagnosis no one expected…your world is shaken and you feel
overwhelmed…you can hardly breath, you can’t see into tomorrow
On Good Friday, the disciples were overwhelmed. Their
hopes & expectation were swept away in the tsunami of religious injustice,
wickedness and Roman brutality. But what
was overwhelmed three day after Good Friday over 2,000 years ago? What happened
when the angel descended and Jesus Christ walked out of the tomb in a Body
never before seen?
There was an earthquake. A sealed, massive stone was dislodged like a
dust mote. All of time and eternity were
shaken.
I read an article years ago in The
Village Voice written by scientists who had no religious bone to pick who
postulated that the negative image burned on the Shroud of Turin was caused by
an omnidirectional energy…unknown to science to date. The scientists stated
that had the exercise of this radiant power lasted more than a fraction of a
millisecond, all of the region surrounding Jerusalem would have been vaporized…unknown
& overwhelming power!
Read Colossians 2:13-15. Here is a description of absolute, overwhelming
victory over death, hell, the grave and all the satanic forces of fallen
angels. Weapons confiscated…all of them.
This is a picture of an enemy being overwhelmed, utterly crushed by a Power
overwhelmingly greater than itself. Infinite Power crushed finite sin.
What was overwhelmed? Our fear, our complacency, our anger,
our prejudice, our jealousy, our greed, our lust, our unforgiveness, our hatred,
our self-righteousness.
What was overwhelmed? Our pride, our rebellion, our
rationalizations, our waste of time, out waste of resources, our emptiness, our
sloth, our vanity, our envy…all of our sin.
Jesus had declared, “It is finished!” Which meant “paid in full”. There was
not one sin, not one wrongdoing, not one intentional or unintentional act of
evil left unpaid for. All that could ever, for all time & eternity separate
us from God, His will, His plan, His purpose, His blessing and His love had
been overwhelmed. Jesus’ resurrection declares unequivocally that sin and
death, hell & the grave have been overwhelmed…swept away. A new way of
being human has been initiated.
The story was not made up. Now one close to Jesus had any expectation
that this was going to happen…He had told them, but it didn’t “click”. Jesus coming to them behind locked doors
scared them spitless! They were overwhelmed… not by despair this time…but by
the GLORY of Resurrection Life…Jesus was alive again!
Read what St. Paul says: 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. When
Paul wrote this there were still enough eyewitnesses to give over whelming
evidence of Jesus’ Resurrection.
Jesus’ Resurrection means something monumental, overwhelming. It means that ALL He said and ALL He did has
been validated. He is the unique, singular and only Savior and Rescuer of
humanity. He alone has done for all of humanity what no one else could ever or
would ever be able to do. By His death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ had made
a way for all who would believe to have their personal sin and death overwhelmed.
New and eternal life…a new creation has been offered to all who will
simply believe that Jesus Christ has overwhelmed everything that could separate
us from God. Listen…what Jesus Christ has done for us is overwhelming. We can
have all our sins overwhelmingly washed away…removed as far as the east is from
the west.
God has done this because of His eternal love for all
humanity.
The work God has done is overwhelming. Will you let His love overwhelm
you sweep away the lies & make you whole at last? This Day declares that
God knows your need. He has met you at the very point of your need by the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Will you receive what He has done? Will you enter into
the overwhelming love of God for you…in every dimension of what it means to
live your life…here and now?
You need to know that Christ Jesus is risen from the
dead. Salvation has been provided to all people to overwhelm any and every
obstacle sin has ever thrown up to separate you from true human flourishing.
This and this ALONE is why I celebrate Resurrection Day.
