Unforgettable Questions No. 4. Why Do You Seek the Living Among the Dead?
Other Posts in this series: Why This Waste? Are You Still Sleeping? Do You Not Fear God?
In a few days, Easter Sunday will be over. The pretty dresses and new shirts will be hung in the closet for another day—maybe. Easter dinner complete and leftovers will wait in the fridge. Easter baskets will have been plundered for treasures, fake grass will be strewn across the house (or in toilets if like my son,) and chocolate bunnies will remain half-eaten until someone throws them away along with the unopened pack of peeps that no one likes, but we still buy. And all the Easter eggs will have been found and collected. Well, most of them. Now what?
Does life go back to normal, stored away like a holiday?
The question, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” is one of my favorite parts of the resurrection. The fact that Jesus is life and is the resurrection is the best part. Obviously. But this question never gets old for me. I’ve heard the Holy Spirit whisper it to me on many occasions when I found myself in places I don’t belong or struggling with a decision. This question extends past that day at an empty tomb, past Easter Sunday, and definitely past seasonal blog posts.
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn,
[the women] went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.
And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.
And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them,
“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
Luke 24:1-6
There is nothing dead about Jesus. He is life, and he is the life-giver. He can’t exist in a grave. As his followers and his body, and as we prepare to be his bride, we can’t live in graves either. Jesus calls us out of darkness into marvelous light. Our life is in him and in him alone. So why do we keep looking for life in dead places?
This unforgettable question reminds me of the Garden of Eden. We were created to live in the life provided for us by our Creator. The instructions to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil were protection from death. Do not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for you will surely die (Genesis 2:16-17). When the angel asked the women at the tomb, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” the invitation to life was extended again. Through Jesus’ blood, we are washed clean from sin—the deadly knowledge we were never supposed to know. In his resurrection, we are restored to life. Life forever more. That’s the whole point. I say that often in my writing, but it’s worth repeating. We were created to exist in him and with him—forever.
Abide in me, keep watch, and take my yoke. These are some of Jesus’ instructions that keep us in his life. It’s a daily choice to seek life in the Living God. We can keep choosing the knowledge of good and evil, but friends, there will never be life there. The appearance of life, maybe, as the Psalmist writes about in Psalm 135, but there is no breath in them (vs. 15-180).
Will you take a few minutes and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, acknowledge areas where you’re looking for life in dead places? Then, simply surrender it to Jesus.
Jesus, we acknowledge you today as life and the giver of life. You are the resurrection! Wow! We lay our lives down, again and again, and live in you.
It’ s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith
in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
Brave Sparrow 