First Baptist Church, Somerville, NJ

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Created: 02 April 2021

“It Is Time to Rise Up”

There is a word in the English language that sets the tone for the month of April and the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The word is “rise” and it means according to Webster’s dictionary “To rise is to move from a lower position to a higher one, and Jesus, being God, certainly does that for us on Easter morning. This definition is both timely and appropriate to remember as we proceed to reopen our lives for a brighter today and tomorrow in Christ, the Risen Savior!

In the Gospel of Matthew, we find these words of our Risen Savior,

“The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Matthew 28: 5-6

Personally, I wonder what they witnessed with their eyes as the women entered the tomb. As a perplexed and uncertain group of women they may have been surprised as they entered the tomb. Perhaps, they witnessed a burial shroud in the corner. Could it be that the body was ready to be prepared to be anointed with oils from loving and caring hands. Mostly, the women confronted just emptiness. Indeed, after the resurrection, the tomb’s purpose was the burial place for emptiness of human life. However, this was not the case with Christ. This emptiness, this nothingness was the culmination of the eventual outcome of all sins of humanity that Jesus died on the cross.

What the women did not see in the tomb is death, darkness, despair, fear, corruption and power all crowding and shouting for space. These things were invisible in the tomb. When the angel said to the women, “He is not here; he has risen, emptiness becomes an afterthought. There is no room for those things of darkness in our life because Christ has risen and conquered death. It’s time for each of us to rise up. Christ has forced the things of darkness; bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, hatred to stay in the tomb where they belong and the light of a better today and tomorrow to shine upon us.

Let us rise every morning to ascend, levitate, climb, increase, hike, leap, skyrocket, upsurge, escalate, spring up to greater things in our life; because if we follow Jesus all the way, we will do all these things.

Have A Blessed Resurrection!

 Pastor Loreno R. Flemmings