Good morning to all of you. I pray you slept well. I just love the season we are in, don’t you? It’s a season of joy and celebration like no other. Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed. Alleluia! My question for you this morning is this: Are you still living your Easter joy? Is the Christ who died on Good Friday still alive in your life a few days after Easter? You will recall the Emmaus disciples, even after hearing the good news from the women, were still moping around.
“They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him [Jesus], “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” … We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive” (Luke 24:17b, 21-23).
We believe that Jesus Christ rose from the grave, but often we don’t act that way. For all practical purposes he is dead in our life. We mope around, like the disciples, moaning about all the evils and troubles and problems in the world. We moan about the coronavirus, we are tired of just sitting around at home, we cry out to the Lord for it to end. Selfishness dominates our thoughts and actions. We wonder how this will affect me and my family in the long term. But I ask the question, how can we point others to a living Christ when we are downcast and acting as though he were dead?
My friends, Christ does live no matter how sad we may feel, or how depressed we get! He did rise from the grave, just as surely as he mounted the ugly cross to take away our sins. He is with us always, just as he promised. That never changes. Amen.
Blessings,
Pastor Bryan E. Drebes
Rev. Bryan Drebes is Pastor at Pacific Hills Lutheran Church in Omaha NebraskaPastor Drebes attended Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, beginning in 1997. He spent the summer of 1999 teaching English to Chinese middle school teachers in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. He served a four-month vicarage at St. John Lutheran Church, Plymouth, Wisconsin, followed by eight months at Bethany Lutheran Church, Overland Park, Kansas. Pastor Drebes was ordained into the Office of the Holy Ministry at Zion Lutheran Church, Palmyra, Missouri on August 19, 2001, and installed as Associate Pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church, Overland Park, Kansas on September 9, 2001. He served Bethany for 14 years. Pastor Drebes accepted a Divine