Categories
Article

Shepherds’ Notes

What does the empty tomb mean for us?

              If you have driven through Cookeville, you have surely noticed the large cross on the side of the interstate.  When we see a cross such as this, we think of Jesus’ sacrifice and death on a cross.  Each Sunday, we remember the Lord’s death, burial and resurrection as we partake of the emblems of the Lord’s Supper just as the early church that came together on the first day of the week to break bread in His remembrance as we see from Acts 20:7.

Do you ever think about the empty tomb and what it means for us?  Jesus tells His disciples in Mark 8:31 that He would suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and after three days rise again.  Matthew 28:5-6 says “But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know you seek Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here; for He is risen, as He said.  Come see the place where the Lord lay.”

We see in Acts 2:24 that death couldn’t hold Him.  Jesus tells Martha in John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”  In John 14:6 He says “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  The empty tomb points to the resurrection of the body of Jesus and assures us that if we have obeyed His commandments, death isn’t the end of our journey with Him.  What does the empty tomb mean for you?