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Lost!


but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. (Luke 24:3)
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 (Luke 24:5-6a)
But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. (Luke 24:11-12)
 

In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” (Luke 24:22-24)
 

 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep (Matt 28:11-13)
 

            Don't you just hate it when you lose something? I don't know about you, but when I lose something, I tend to lose control, and then I get mad because I've lost two things. The safest thing for others is either to go away until I find both again, or produce the first so that I can find the second.

         It's bad enough to lose a set of keys. Imagine losing a friend that you thought was the Messiah, then losing his body! Can it get any worse? Or, imagine that you were hired to make sure the corpse didn't get lost or stolen and you have to go report that "It's gone... it's...just...gone." How does a person lose a corpse? These were all normal folks. They didn't live in a society filled with vampire slayers or zombie apocalypses.  Corpses didn't just get up and walk or hop out of the tomb (even though the disciples had already seen just that happen.)

            This morning, the Resurrection scene from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe comes to mind. The girls return to mourn the loss of Aslan. Not only is he not there, but when they do see him, flowers are growing and blooming all around him. Everywhere he pounces as they play, flowers. He and the girls romp and play in their joy. I can't say that when I find something, I get that enthusiastic, but I think that is the proper response. Today, we celebrate finding that which is more important than anything else we could have lost: God, Himself.
 

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