He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
Matthew 28:6
This was the most, spectacular, jaw dropping event ever, the resurrection of Jesus. My focus is on the drama outside the tomb. The body of Jesus is laid, the stone rolled back in place and sealed with the Roman governor’s official seal. The high preist security guards arranged for the tomb to be heavily guarded 24/7, well -armed, well trained, Commando Cats of modern times, that not even a soul could come anywhere near. The media and journalists were around.
Very early in the morning while it was still dark Mary Magdalene found the tomb empty. Little did the army know that the Lord of Hosts was within. Death, the tomb or the soldiers could not hold Him, the maker of heaven and earth, for He said He will rise and He did, is seated on His throne at the right hand of the Father on High (Hebrews 7:25.)
I have visited the Tomb, thanks to God and my first-born, Prakash who gifted me the best gift of my life, visit to Israel, it was indeed empty. Let me take you to 1 Samuel 4, under Samuel’s leadership, the Israelites battled against the Philistines with disastrous results, thirty thousand were killed including Hophni and Phineas. Philistines captured the ark of God that was at the battlefield and took it back to Ashdod, they had heard of the God of the Israel who brought the Israelites out of Egypt’s bondage but now, they were convinced that there was no God like Dagon and took the ark as a trophy to the house of Dagon. Dagon, although a stone must have spent a terrifying night, for by two mornings it lay prostrating the ark and all that remained was a torso.
The Philistines were now terrified, the ark of God did not need human help, they were sorely afflicted in every place the ark was moved during those 7 months. They desperately wanted to return the ark of God to Israel. This was sent back on a brand-new cart, with the best milk cows that have never been yoked, hitched to the cart and was loaded with gold as compensation or trespass offering. The cows headed with the ark of the Lord straight down the road to the Israelites, where it belonged.
Philistines could not hold the ark of the Lord back for the divine presence of the living God was in it. Acts 16:25-28 Paul and Silas were imprisoned for evicting an evil spirit out of a fortune teller. They were stripped, beaten up and put in the inner cell with their feet fastened. They had a praise- party because they knew who was resident in them, the very resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead. At midnight an earthquake broke open the prison doors setting them free.
If the power of the Holy Spirit is in you, if you belong to the Lord Jesus, then no devil in hell can hold you back, no obstacle can stop you, no situation can affect you, we ought to know who our God is and worship Him.
Prayer
Lovingly heavenly Father, may we set You before us and at our right hand and be unshaken for we know that You alone does wonders,
Amen!
Sol.Lalitha Menon