What shall I do with Jesus?

I remember  9-11 like it was yesterday.  There is a long personal story behind it, suffice to say I was in Tower 1 when the first plane struck the building. I often get the chance to speak about  God’s grace that day and am glad to do so. My wife had a different experience. She woke to the sound of a ringing phone. My father wanted to know if I was at work. She responded yes and asked why. My father instructed her to turn on the TV. She began to watch the events of that day unfold. People began to show up at the door to comfort her and wait for any word on my fate. I was glad that I was not in her position. For a period of time, she did not know where I was or what was happening to me. For a few hours, she was a widow. ​

I was finally able to call home at one point. We both were overjoyed to hear the voice of each other. She announced to the group that I was safe and relief entered our home.  I can never forget the emotions of the day and often am reminded of them. My wife and I both wrote down what we experienced that day. We wanted to preserve it so others would know what happened and what it was like.

We recently remembered a tragic day, Good Friday. Jesus’s apostles, family, friends, and community that welcomed and adored him just a week earlier on Palm Sunday. Saw him: betrayed, put on trial, humiliated, sentenced to death, mocked, punched, scourged half to death, paraded through the streets as a criminal carrying his instrument of death, nailed to a cross, hung suffering to be further mocked and finally died. This was done publicly to be an example to those that watched not to go against the Roman government or the Jewish leadership. It was an effective way to keep people in line. I wonder do we treat God any different today.

I can’t begin to imagine how hard it would be to watch someone I knew and cared about be punished like that. The extreme heartache and sadness. Not to mention the fear that you might be next. The person that has led you has just been killed in the cruelest of ways.

Jesus was allowed to be buried in the private tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Sunday morning the women went down to his tomb to finish preparing the body. Only to find the tomb empty. How was the body missing? Who would steal a corpse? Who would challenge the guard placed around the tomb? Who is brave enough to break the Roman Seal on the tomb in defiance of the Roman authority? Where would a decomposing corpse be hidden? No one came up with good answers. The tomb was by all counts admittedly empty.  

Jesus revealed himself as the Risen Christ. I can't imagine what went through peoples mind that saw him. The confusion wonder and awe, the relief and fear. The realization that He was what he proclaimed to be The Son of the Living God.

What would you do if you were one of the Apostles and saw this amazing supernatural event take place? Would you tell everyone you knew? Would you tell people that you don't know? Would you write it down so future generations would know? Would you be willing to die rather than say it didn't happen?

The Apostles did what I hope I would have done. Told everyone that would listen. Wrote down their accounts. Now the choice is ours believe their eyewitness accounts or try to explain them away. We like Pilate, must ask and answer the same question he posed  “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” ….. Matthew 27:22 (NIV

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