“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down for his sheep.”
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
John 10:11, Revelations 1:17-18
Questions
What does it mean to you Jesus is alive?
If you had been there at the empty tomb and saw Jesus, what would you say?
What does it mean that He is the Good Shepherd?
Meditation
You know, you’re not supposed to have a “Jesus Rises” station in the Stations of the Cross. It doesn’t exist in the traditional stations. These stations are supposed to be a meditation on Jesus’ journey to the cross and the grave. These meditations are about descent.
We save rising for Easter morning.
The church tradition I grew up in felt very uncomfortable with things unsolved. It felt very uncomfortable talking about the cross and the grave without talking about the Resurrection. My guess is none of us like a story that ends in the darkness of the unknown because it reflects the future reality of our entrance into the unknown. And that transition frightens the ba-jee-bees out of most of us.
My hope in these meditations is that we begin to see that the Divine is intimately familiar with the hardest parts of our human experience.
From betrayal to heartbreak.
From pain to silence.
From appearance to disappearance.
We can see that Jesus did not insulate Himself from those hard parts but actually went through them, like you and I must do.
Jesus shows His humanity – Jesus shows His divinity.
Here is our last thought. He is not only the Lamb that take away our sins. He is also the Good Shepherd. He guides, He protects, He provides. And with His resurrection, He secures His role as Good Shepherd forever.
And because He is alive – we too have eternal life. At the cross, He defeated sin. With the empty tomb, He defeated death.
Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, may I live in the security of Your resurrection. And may I have the joy, peace, and power knowing that because You live, I can live also.