Can I Ask That – Part Fifteen – Why Did Jesus Christ Rise from the Dead and Ascend Into Heaven?
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2024%3A1-12&version=NLT
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians15%3A3-8&version=NLT
Head – When Hope Was Lost
It’s hard for us, standing here today, to understand just how devastating Good Friday was for Jesus’ followers. We know the ending. We celebrate Easter with joy because we already know how the story turns out. But for those first disciples, the cross wasn’t a symbol of hope or victory. It was the end of everything they believed in.
Imagine their situation: they had left their jobs, their families, their homes—all to follow Jesus. They believed He was the Messiah, the one who would fix what was broken in the world, restore justice, and bring God’s kingdom. They saw Him heal diseases, calm storms, even raise the dead. To them, Jesus seemed unstoppable.
But in a single day, everything fell apart.
Their teacher was arrested like a criminal, dragged through a fake trial, beaten, and mocked. And then, they watched Him be nailed to a cross—the most painful and shameful way the Roman Empire could think of putting criminals to death. They heard Him cry out. They saw His blood. They witnessed His last breath.
And with that breath, all their hopes died too.
The Jesus movement seemed over. The disciples didn’t run off to plan what to do next—they ran away to hide. They weren’t thinking about how to continue His work—they were thinking about how to stay alive. The dream they had followed was gone. All they had left was fear and sorrow.
And then… Sunday came.
Some women went to the tomb. They weren’t expecting a miracle—they were planning to anoint a dead body. But when they arrived, the stone was rolled away, and the tomb was empty. They ran to tell the others, but even then, most of the disciples didn’t believe them. An empty tomb wasn’t enough.
Think about it—if all they had found was a missing body, what would that have meant? Maybe someone moved it. Maybe the authorities took it. That wouldn’t have given them faith—it would have left them confused.
They needed more.
And more is exactly what they got.
Jesus appeared. First to Mary in the garden. Then to two disciples walking on the road. Then to the Eleven gathered in a locked room. He wasn’t a ghost. He wasn’t a vision. He was alive. He ate with them. Spoke to them. Invited Thomas to touch His scars.
The resurrection wasn’t just the absence of a body. It was the presence of Jesus. The movement didn’t come back to life because the tomb was empty—it came back to life because Jesus was fully alive.
Heart – Jesus Gave Us Back the Future
Sheldon Vanauken once wrote:
“We all have a kind of hunger for eternity. But we live in a world that frustrates that hunger. So many things are designed to save us time—fast food, fast cars, fast internet—but for what? We’re more rushed than ever.
We live in time, like fish live in water. But strangely, we don’t feel at home in it. Time rushes past. Our happiest moments always feel too short. They fade.
C. S. Lewis once asked: if fish were bothered by being wet, wouldn’t that suggest they weren’t made only for water? And if we are troubled by time—if we long for things that last beyond time—doesn’t that suggest we weren’t made just for time?
It suggests we were made for eternity.”
(from A Severe Mercy)
That longing is something we all feel. We’re creatures living in time, but it feels like time is always running out. Our best memories fade. Our favorite days end. Every celebration carries a little sadness because we know it won’t last.
That’s why death hurts so deeply. It’s the cruelest reminder that time always wins. It takes away the people we love. It ends the stories we were still writing. And for Jesus’ followers on Friday, death had won.
But then, something happened that changed everything.
Jesus didn’t just come back to life. He defeated death. He broke its power. His resurrection wasn’t just a miracle—it was eternity stepping into time.
It wasn’t just that Jesus was alive—it was that life itself had changed.
What the disciples didn’t realize on Friday was that Jesus wasn’t only going to restore Israel. He came to restore the whole future. He didn’t just bring the kingdom of God—He opened the door to eternity. The ache in our hearts? The longing for something more? It’s not imaginary. It’s not a fantasy. It’s a signpost pointing to what’s real—what’s promised.
And eternity won’t be like time going on forever. It won’t be some long, boring church service in the sky.
It will be:
- Finally having time for that conversation with your loved one—without losing time for others.
- Resting as long as you need without missing anything.
- Playing, creating, exploring, and loving—without fear of loss, or that you have wasted time.
It won’t just be unending time. It will be the fullness of time.
Hands – What Easter Means to Me
Years ago, I was asked to lead the funeral service for my Uncle Eddie. He was in his early 40s and had died of eye cancer, leaving behind three kids who still needed their dad. Most of my family wasn’t religious, and they asked me to speak both as a family member and as a pastor. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
I couldn’t pretend to understand why he died so young. I couldn’t tell his children that everything was okay—because it wasn’t. Death had taken something precious from them. And I couldn’t promise that the days ahead would be easy.
What I could say was this:
The God who made the world isn’t a stranger to suffering. He knows what pain feels like. He knows what loss feels like. And in Jesus, He even knows what death feels like.
But that same God also promises that pain and death won’t have the last word.
As the book of Revelation says:
“Look! God’s home is now with His people. He will live with them, and they will be His people.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or sorrow, or crying, or pain. The old world is gone.”
(Revelation 21:3–5)
God also says in Joel 2:25:
“I will restore the years that the locusts have eaten.”
In other words, whatever sin and death take away in this life—they don’t get to keep it.
Everything broken will be mended. Everything ruined will be restored.
Every loss will be made whole again.
The Christian mystic Julian of Norwich once wrote:
“It was necessary that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”
What does Easter mean to you?
Conclusion: Easter Changes Everything
Easter doesn’t erase our pain—but it transforms it.
It doesn’t deny death—but it defies it.
Because of Easter, we don’t just hope—we know:
- Jesus is alive.
- Death is defeated.
- And eternity is real and available now.
Amen.
Easter changes everything.