Nonsense
Read Luke 24:1-12.
Autocorrect is a wonderful and dangerous thing. When you're typing or texting, autocorrect steps in and reminds you just how many mistakes you make. It guesses at the words you are trying to type...and sometimes it even gets it right. Even more hilarious are the times it gets it wrong. I've had people accidentally cuss at me because autocorrect was being "helpful." And I've received messages that are nothing more than gibberish—a group of words strung together that have no connection to each other—because of autocorrect.
Well, there was no autocorrect in the first century, but that didn't stop people from speaking nonsense—or at least it didn't stop people from hearing nonsense. In fact, on that first Easter morning, when the women return from the empty tomb, the disciples listen to them and then declare what they say to be "nonsense." The word literally means, according to my Greek lexicon, "twaddle" or "an idle tale." What they are saying doesn't square with the disciples' experience—that experience being, "Dead men don't rise." They assume they are not hearing them correctly, or the women have had too much time on their hands and they've made up this crazy story. Autocorrect. Something that makes no sense. Nonsense.
People still think that today, even those who pack into our worship centers on Easter Sunday. In some ways, attending worship on Easter can be a cultural thing, or something people do "for grandma" or "for mom." Those folks hear the story (every year), but have trouble believing it. It doesn't make sense. Dead men don't rise. That's our experience, and no matter how many times the preacher says it, the journey to belief is a hard one. The story sounds like nonsense.
And yet, the story is true—but the only real way for someone to know it is true is to experience the presence of the risen Christ. And the best way for people to experience the risen Christ is to see him living in you. If Christ has not made a difference in your life, such that people notice, they will not see him or allow him to make a difference in your life. The story, without the evidence in your life, is nonsense. Twaddle. A made-up fairy tale. But when the risen Christ shines through you, it becomes something that can change our lives and our world.
Does your life give evidence of the reality of resurrection? Will you let Jesus shine through you in unmistakeable ways today?
Autocorrect is a wonderful and dangerous thing. When you're typing or texting, autocorrect steps in and reminds you just how many mistakes you make. It guesses at the words you are trying to type...and sometimes it even gets it right. Even more hilarious are the times it gets it wrong. I've had people accidentally cuss at me because autocorrect was being "helpful." And I've received messages that are nothing more than gibberish—a group of words strung together that have no connection to each other—because of autocorrect.
Well, there was no autocorrect in the first century, but that didn't stop people from speaking nonsense—or at least it didn't stop people from hearing nonsense. In fact, on that first Easter morning, when the women return from the empty tomb, the disciples listen to them and then declare what they say to be "nonsense." The word literally means, according to my Greek lexicon, "twaddle" or "an idle tale." What they are saying doesn't square with the disciples' experience—that experience being, "Dead men don't rise." They assume they are not hearing them correctly, or the women have had too much time on their hands and they've made up this crazy story. Autocorrect. Something that makes no sense. Nonsense.
People still think that today, even those who pack into our worship centers on Easter Sunday. In some ways, attending worship on Easter can be a cultural thing, or something people do "for grandma" or "for mom." Those folks hear the story (every year), but have trouble believing it. It doesn't make sense. Dead men don't rise. That's our experience, and no matter how many times the preacher says it, the journey to belief is a hard one. The story sounds like nonsense.
And yet, the story is true—but the only real way for someone to know it is true is to experience the presence of the risen Christ. And the best way for people to experience the risen Christ is to see him living in you. If Christ has not made a difference in your life, such that people notice, they will not see him or allow him to make a difference in your life. The story, without the evidence in your life, is nonsense. Twaddle. A made-up fairy tale. But when the risen Christ shines through you, it becomes something that can change our lives and our world.
Does your life give evidence of the reality of resurrection? Will you let Jesus shine through you in unmistakeable ways today?
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