Empty
We tend to hate empty things; empty promises, empty bank accounts, empty words, empty calories, empty gas tanks and empty cups. Empty is almost always seen as a negative. Yet today we rejoice in the empty.
The empty tomb.
An empty ledger of my sin.
Look at the Easter account:
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; – John 20 (ESV)
The empty tomb catches them by surprise.
I think it catches us by surprise too.
The one thing we do not expect more than empty is free.
Freely given.
Freely forgiven.
All sin wiped away. All wrong set aside.
On Easter it was announced that the separation between God’s love and man has ended.
So where do we stand now? We are free to go to the very wellspring of life. We have been redeemed!
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
– 1 John 1:9 (ESV)
Why?
Why can we stand before God without fear?
Because the cross is empty now.
The tomb is empty now.
THE LORD HAS RISEN!
Celebrate the empty today my friends, because in the empty, we have been made full!
– Pastor Dan