Signs of Easter
Today’s Devotional by Dr. David Jeremiah
“A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” (Matthew 16:4; NKJV)
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) (John 20:1-9; NIV)
America begins showing signs of Easter earlier and earlier every year. Plastic eggs for sale by the millions, chocolate eggs and bunny rabbits in every store, pastel colored Easter baskets and bundles of plastic green “grass” to fill them—the world’s signs of Easter can’t be missed. But today’s signs of Easter are a far cry from the signs that proved the reality of the very first Easter morning.
Jesus told His detractors who had asked Him for a miraculous sign that they would see only one sign—the sign of Jonah, who spent three days in the belly of a great fish before being rescued from death. On the third day after Jesus’ own death, He came out of the grave to give the world a sign it cannot deny. For a man to predict His own death and resurrection was something only God could do. The Gospel writers give us many proofs of His resurrection: sightings by witnesses, nail-scarred hands, a stone rolled away, and more. Truly, Jesus was—is!—alive.
As you prepare to celebrate Easter this Sunday, give thanks to God that your faith is not in vain—that Christ was raised for you (1 Corinthians 15:14).
“The Easter story ends not with a funeral but with a festival.”
John Blanchard
© 2014 Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah
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