Vs. 15

"Why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
 

Have you ever watched an infomercial? What is the two things every infomercial has in common? They all promise if you buy this product you will NEVER need to buy another product like it. It doesn’t matter if it is exercise equipment, cooking appliance, face creams, cutlery or anything else.

Regardless of the product every infomercial also guarantees you the buyer complete satisfaction or your money back. As good as that guarantee is I have only seen one infomercial that guaranteed that the use of this product would solve some of the most profound issues facing our world: rising gas prices, energy consumption, global warming, and dependence on foreign oil at cost to you of $2.60

Does any one want to make a guess as to what this item is?

The product is this, a compact fluorescent light bulb.

Do you have any idea what the potential impact of using the swirl is? According to the infomercial this strange shaped swirl shaped light bulb has the potential of saving the world. If every one of the 100 million homes in America swapped out just one incandescent with a swirl we would save enough electricity to power a city of 1.5 million people.

Who would have thought that a simple change in lighting had the potential to save us all?

Can you say GOD! Or have you forgotten?

It was only a little more than three months ago we were reading from an earlier chapter in the gospel of John. John called Jesus “the light that shines in the darkness” and “the true light which enlightens everyone” that was “coming into the world” in the form of a typical human being — the Word and Light of God “made flesh” (John 1:1-14).

Jesus the LIGHT comes not just with a life time guarantee but an after-lifetime guarantee. Jesus is a LIGHT that has the potential to impact the entire human race. Jesus is a LIGHT that can rid the world of darkness forever. Yet so many areas of the world, so many areas of people’s lives are shrouded in darkness.

It is Easter morning and like Mary in the garden we are still weeping. Why? “Why are you weeping?” Why is there still such anguish in the world? Why are we laboring on, burdened and living as though there has been no resurrection?

Martin Luther once spent three days in a black depression over something that had gone wrong. On the third day his wife came downstairs dressed in mourning clothes.
“Who’s dead?” Martin asked her.
“God,” she replied.
Luther rebuked her, saying, “What do you mean, God is dead? God cannot die.”
“Well,” she replied, “the way you’ve been acting I was sure God had died!”

This story might have been about Martin Luther but in truth it could have been about anyone of us. Do we not act like Martin Luther when jobs aren’t going well; or when finances are tight; or when relationships are troubled; or when shadow of doubt lingers; or when life isn’t going as planned; or when the trials and tribulations of life are overwhelming?

“Why are you weeping?”

Easter is God’s announcement that there is, indeed, a solution to the world’s rampant over-consumption of sin and self; that there is a solution for our worries and woes; that there is a solution for our trials and tribulations. Jesus’ life redeemed from death, has the potential of saving the world. Notice I say has the ‘potential’ of saving the world. If we only give Easter lip service then it will not have lasting impact at all. Observing Easter is like buying a compact fluorescent light bulb, but never screwing into a light socket.

Easter calls us to screw “Jesus, the light of the world.” into our spiritual sockets, Jesus can cut through the darkness of your life with His soft, steady, bright, eternally-lasting and life saving light (Matthew 5:14-16).

Compact fluorescent light bulbs have the potential of transforming the use of electricity. Jesus, the light of the world has the potential of transforming your life; of transforming your failures into victory, your despair into hope, your weeping into joy and your weakness into strength.

Imagine if we allowed the light of Jesus to reshape life in our homes, our workplaces and everywhere else where the old self still dominates. How many inner cities would be lit with the light of love instead of despair? How many areas of darkness in our life and world would be illuminated with the light of Jesus, the risen Lord and Savior. When this happens we will be able to say as Mary did, “I have seen the Lord!”

It only takes one light to save the world. Jesus, our risen Lord. Won’t you let Him light up your life?