This week Heartland has been challenged to write “It’s Gonna Be Okay” somewhere on their property for passes by to see as they are out of their homes for their daily walk. The words are a title to a song that was written by The Piano Guys and we had it performed for us at the Yarra Glen Christmas Carols 2019. At the Carols we spoke about the tough times we all go through and that there is a way to be stable when our world is rocked and that is by trusting in Jesus.
Jesus was a man who performed many acts of kindness, healed people and said some pretty profound things. He claimed to be God and his followers and friends believed him. Then he was killed.
If the story ended there we wouldn’t know much about Jesus today. We wouldn’t have Christmas Carols at the end of the year, we wouldn’t have Easter and we wouldn’t even have a weekend! The whole reason we are still talking about all of this is because he came back! He walked out of the grave!
It seems a ridiculous story to believe in our modern world. Why would you? You are intelligent and know a lot about how things work and you also know one thing for sure everyone you know who has died has, well, stayed that way. The thing is, Jesus friends and followers didn’t believe it either!
The day Jesus died they figured they had wasted the last few years of their lives. They had left their jobs and family, their way of life to follow this guy thinking he was something special and then at the peak of his fame he was killed by the government in the most cruel death possible, even criminals didn’t suffer that much!
It was three days after Jesus had died that his friend Mary and a few other women went to visit the grave. When they got there they noticed things weren’t right. The guards posted to protect the grave were gone and the huge stone that blocked the entrance was rolled back, the body was gone! They were so confused by this, who would have done this? Then a man spoke to Mary, she thought he was a gardener until he said her name, there was only one person who said her name like that, Jesus!
Jesus brings hope. This story may seem unbelievable until you consider how it was written. There was no way a man of that time would have a woman as his main character of his story if it wasn’t true, because women in those day were not valued or even considered people, and the guards would never leave their post because they would have been killed for that. That is just the beginning of evidence that points to Jesus really being God.
So, if Jesus really is God then what does that mean for us? There is so much bad stuff happening in our world how could a loving God that has the power to come back to life allow this to happen? A lot of that has to do with our choices as humanity, the way we treat others and our planet. What Jesus brought on the scene was a story of HOPE. A way for us to understand who God is, a way for us to have relationship with God. If you choose to believe that Jesus really is God and choose to allow a friendship between God and yourself to begin that hope will be revealed. When your world is rocking there is someone who can hold you firm, all you need to do is accept the help.