"Two Short Sentences"
July 30, 2016
(The angel said) "He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay." Matthew 28:6
Years ago, while I was making a hospital call, I saw a fellow dressed in street clothes burst out of one of the patient's rooms. Not only was the man not following proper, sedate hospital protocol, he was also shouting.
A doctor and a few nurses were right behind him, trying to catch up, trying to call him back, trying to have him turn down his volume. But the man couldn't be caught, and he wouldn't be silenced.
He saw me and came running down the hallway, directly toward me.
Truth be told, I found the sight of this man's wild-eyed charge a little bit frightening. It would have been a lot frightening if the man hadn't been grinning from ear-to-ear. He came up to me and, looking me directly in the eye, said six words. Those words were, "The baby is going to live!" Then, wishing to explain a bit further, he added, "The doctor said, 'The baby is going to live.'"
And then the man disappeared down the hallway.
I could track his progress by the faintness of the wonderful message he had shared with me and with all who could hear. As the doctor passed me, he smiled and said four words: "He got good news." Altogether I had heard 19 words. I didn't know the man's name or that of his baby. I never found out what the problem had been. I knew none of the participants, but I knew all I needed to know.
* I knew darkness had been replaced by light.
* Fear had been moved aside by hope.
* At that moment, nothing could mar that man's joy.
Over the years as I've thought about that man, I have concluded he was the happiest man I have ever met, and I've often wondered why there aren't more who are behaving the same way.
You see, there was a time when we, and everyone we know, were destined for hell. On our own there was nothing we could do to change things. We had sinned and the punishment for our transgressions was eternal punishment.
But then, on Resurrection Sunday, the angels at Jesus' borrowed tomb said two short sentences. They said, "He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay."
With that announcement the temporal and eternal lives of those who would be brought to faith were changed -- wonderfully -- for the better. This is news so good that we, like my hospital man, ought to be shouting so all can hear, "We are going to live! The Father says, 'We are going to live!'"
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, forgive me for all the times I have allowed the insignificant minutia of life to rob me of the joy that comes to all who acknowledge Jesus as their Savior. Let my morose attitude be replaced by one that shows others the joy which comes to those who, because of Jesus, are going to live. This I ask in the Savior's Name. Amen.
