It has been a busy and exciting day – hunting Easter eggs, celebrating with my church family and seeing lives transformed by God’s grace, feasting and traveling. As I write this, I have just returned from the observation of a Seder meal, which was a wonderful experience.

But after having spent the last forty days posting a daily devotion for our Journey to the Cross, how could I not post one on Easter, for Resurrection Sunday?! So here is a bonus devotional as an addendum to our Journey to the Cross. Let’s look to Matthew’s Gospel in chapter 28.

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it. His appearance was like lightening, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they became like dead men.

The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. For he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”

Matthew 28:1-6

Have you ever thought about an alternative way Resurrection Sunday could have gone? Imagine this:

Jesus’s disciples go to the tomb, and there lies the lifeless body of their Lord. Peter steps up to insist, “Stop all this crying! Don’t you remember Jesus saying that he would die and be raised again on the third day? What are we waiting for? Let’s get to work!”

So Andrew goes into town to find a master physician. James assembles an ensemble of musicians in hopes that joyful music will revive the Lord. Doubting either of these will work, practical Thomas fetches some ice water. And then at some point, thanks to the efforts of his disciples, Jesus stands up and says, “Thank you, my friends! You have raised me from the dead. You have brought me back to life!”

This sounds like a music I’ve been to before. Everyone had to light their roses to change the Beast. Everyone had to chant a phrase to revive a fairy. So what’s the problem with this situation, aside from being a complete fabrication?

The obvious answer is the correct one. None of these things, none of these human acts, would have been sufficient to raise the dead. Jesus was not sleeping. He was not comatose. He did not merely faint. Jesus was dead.

The followers who buried Jesus’s body knew that they were placing his dead body in the tomb. No cold water, no smelling salts, no CPR, and no joyful music, and no combination of any of these things would revive the dead. Nothing on earth could cure death. Dead is dead.

Jesus was beyond any human means of revival, resuscitation, or resurrection. Only God alone could create a victorious conclusion to Jesus’s journey to the cross. Only God had the power and authority to raise Jesus from the dead. And God did!

God breathed fresh life into Jesus’s lungs. As his body laid lifeless, his heart began to beat again, at God’s command. Christ is risen! He is risen and our guilt is gone. Our sins are buried, forgiven, washed away. Death has been declawed and defanged. God alone brought about this very real victory through the very real death and the very real resurrection of his only Begotten Son.

As has always been the case, God is the Source and Giver of life. He is the only Source. Resurrection comes through God alone. New life comes through Jesus. Victory in your journey comes through the power of His Holy Spirit.

So today as you pray, say something like this: “Victory and eternal life come from you alone, O great God! Help me continue to cling to faith in your only Son, Jesus the Christ, so that my journey through this life may end, not in the second death, but in new, resurrected life in the power of your Holy Spirit. In the holy name of Jesus, Amen.

Thank you for joining me for this bonus post of Journey to the Cross. I hope you have had a wonderful Easter Day, but I hope even more that you live every day in celebrating our risen Savior and Lord.