We often look in all the wrong places for what we need most in life. We try to find meaning and purpose instead of accepting the meaning and purpose God created for us. David Jeremiah puts it this way, “Many people today are searching for meaning in life, but in all the wrong places. Trying to find eternal meaning in a temporal world is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. God made us for eternity, and only His eternal presence in our lives can satisfy our thirst for meaning.”[1] Like the two Marys on their way to Jesus’ tomb, we search for the “living among the dead.”
We also worry a lot about things that have already been taken care of like they did. Who’s going to roll away this huge stone? Well, it’s already been taken care of. In addition, we often fear things that we should not be afraid of like they did. When the Angel appeared to them, the first thing he said was, “Don’t be afraid.” This is the standard opening phrase spoken by most angels upon their first appearance to humans. We are naturally afraid when we encounter things we don’t understand. I suppose Ezekiel was one of the prophets that had most to fear. He was taken as a slave to Babylon. His message, however, was to his own people who had gone with him. But they were abusive and belligerent and tried to silence him. But in Ezekiel 2:6, God spoke to Ezekiel and said, as Peterson translates it, “But don’t be afraid of them, son of man, and don’t be afraid of anything they say. Don’t be afraid when living among them is like stepping on thorns or finding scorpions in your bed. Don’t be afraid of their mean words or their hard looks.”[2]
When Jesus walked on the water on the Sea of Galilee, he approached the boat where his disciples were. They were frightened. They thought they were seeing a ghost. I imagine that was a pretty frightening image: an unidentified person walking across the waves as though a stone path had been laid for him. As He approached his frightened disciples, he shouted above the wind and the waves, the same thing he always shouts to us in the midst of the storms of life. He says, “Be of good cheer! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” No matter how violent the storm in your life might be, no matter what it is you’re struggling with, Jesus says the same thing to all of us. Three of the shortest sentences in the bible: Be of Good cheer. It is I. Don’t be afraid. The resurrection removes, for you and I, through our faith in the resurrected one, the fear of death. It just evaporates before the empty tomb. He assured us that there are many mansions in His kingdom, and he promised to take us to be with him forever. We can all say, along with the apostle Paul, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? …But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:55-57
[1] Jeremiah, David. 2004. Searching for Heaven on Earth: How to Find What Really Matters in Life (Study Guide). San Diego, CA: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
[2] Peterson, Eugene H. 2005. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.