“So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus was with them. ‘Greetings,’ he said.” -Matthew 28: 8-9
As John Ortberg begins Chapter 15 (“Sunday”) of Who is This Man?, he wryly observes that Jesus’s greeting to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary seems a bit understated, although in that day it was a very common, informal greeting. The author continues by relating he story of a children’s sermon based on Matthew’s account. Before the pastor could ask how Jesus greeted the women, a little girl answered: “I know. Ta-da!”
Jesus’s prediction of His death in John 12: 23-24 foreshadows the “ta-da” moment of His resurrection and new life for His followers:
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
Pastor Ortberg adds that Jesus is telling us we have to sacrifice in order to bring forth a harvest. We are the seeds. Pastor Ortberg concludes:
“What got released on Sunday was hope. Not hope that life would turn out well . . . . Hope that called people to die: die to selfishness and sin and fear and greed, die to the lesser life of a lesser self so that a greater self might be born.”
Today’s question: What harvest have you experienced on your healing journey to revisioning and revitalization of your calling? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Death- the way to life”
