Theologian Paul Tillich told the following story in one of his sermons:
In the Nuremburg war-crimes trials a witness appeared who had lived for some time in a grave in a Jewish grave-yard. It was the only place he and many others could live, when hiding after they had escaped the gas chamber. During this time he wrote poetry, and one of his poems was the description of a birth. In a grave nearby a young woman gave birth to a boy. The eighty-year-old gravedigger, wrapped in a linen shroud, assisted. When the new-born uttered his first cry, the old man prayed: “Great God, hast Thou finally sent the Messiah to us? For who else than the Messiah himself can be born in a grave?”
We celebrate Christmas as the birth of our Messiah, but in a very real sense the Messiah was born in a grave. When Jesus was resurrected by God, he entered into a new existence. He became the first participant in the new creation destined by that One he called Abba. And what happened to him was a foretaste or preview of what will be our destiny and that of this world. The new life Jesus entered that first Easter was far greater than the life he began in a manger in Bethlehem. His resurrection marked the beginning of the great consummation whereby God will bring about the healing and redemption of this creation. Early that morning Jesus became the firstborn of the dead (Colossians 1:18); indeed, the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15). So we serve a Messiah who was born in a grave and as such is the firstborn of all creation. His destiny by God’s grace will be our destiny and that of this world God so loves.
I wonder if we give any serious thought to the significance of Jesus’ resurrection for us and this world. Do we appreciate what it means to serve a Messiah who was born not only in a feed-trough but also in a grave? Do we comprehend the faithfulness and power of God who allows a grave to become a womb? Are we willing to risk our lives for God’s Peaceable realm, trusting God to take our fractured devotion and weave it into patterns of beauty and goodness? Are we willing to live like Easter people knowing the best is yet to come? That love will find a way? That no person, situation, or time is beyond redemption?
This Easter take some time to ask yourself this question: “Do I really believe in the resurrection? And if I do, would anyone realize it from the way I live?” I believe that old gravedigger was correct. Who else than the Messiah can be born in a grave? This Easter may each of us understand more fully what it means to follow and serve that kind of Messiah.
