I had one tonight while progressing in the line to the Eucharistic feast. The thought came,
"The Tomb is empty... am I?"
I wrestled with that question as I stared at the dark stained glass window of Christ on the cross. I wondered if it is such an elementary question that everybody innately knows how to be empty so they can be filled with God and maybe I'm the only one who is confused about how to be empty.
I shut down the thought to participate as fully as possible in being thankful for Christ's shed blood, broken body and resurrection. The joy was overwhelming and I wanted to dance and twirl and throw my arms out and embrace all the wonderful life God has bestowed. Knowing I can twirl and dance before the Lord (or dance with the Lord) at home, I restrained my exuberance and approached this holy day with proper decorum exteriorly while my spirit was leaping inside me celebrating this marvelous, mystical holy day. I couldn't stop the ear to ear grin or the lone tear of joy that escaped.
Back at my seat, I held my prayer cross and thought-talked to God. Then I thought on the question once again.
"The tomb is empty.... am I?"
Jesus died for our sins and to show us how to live.
Romans 6 tells us when we were baptized that we died in Him so we can live in Him - can live His life, kingdom life, eternal life -- now.
Jesus rose; but no man or woman saw Him; they first saw the empty tomb.
The tomb is empty... am I?
When the tomb was empty, then Mary saw Him in the garden and mistook him for a humble, loving gardener.
When I am empty, then others will see the humble, loving Christ in me.
I want to be empty.
I don't know how to be empty. I want to know. I presume it's like most things: grace.
Thank God for grace.
Thank God for the empty tomb.
Thank God for answering prayers.
Thank God for faith - I believe He will direct me to deeper emptying.
The two scripture passages below spoke to me as I typed this blog entry. Yes, it is grace that empties my inner tomb of death and selfishness that would hold me back from a fuller life in Christ.
Galatians 2: 16-21
(The Message)
16 We know very well that we are not set right
with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How
do we know? We tried it - and we had the best system of rules the world has
ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we
believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by
trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.
17 Have some of you noticed that we are not yet
perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation
that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right
with God, aren't perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to
sin? The accusation is frivolous.
18 If I was "trying to be good," I
would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a
charlatan.
19 What actually took place is this: I tried
keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I
quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man.
20 Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me
to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been
crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important
that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no
longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is
not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself for me.
21 I am not going to go back on that. Is it not
clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion
would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with
God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship
with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.
Galatians 5: 13-26
(The Message)
13
It is
absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that
you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and
destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love;
that's how freedom grows.
14
For
everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love
others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom.
15
If you
bite and ravage each other, watch out--in no time at all you will be annihilating
each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
16
My
counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you
won't feed the compulsions of selfishness.
17
For
there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free
spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two
ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at
times another way according to how you feel on any given day.
18
Why
don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions
of a law-dominated existence?
19
It is
obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the
time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional
garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness;
20
trinket
gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition;
all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love
or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided
pursuits;
21
the
vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and
uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This
isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this
way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.
22
But
what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the
same way that fruit appears in an orchard--things like affection for others,
exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things,
a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness
permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments,
23
not
needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies
wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way.
24
Among
those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and
mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for
good--crucified.
25
Since
this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make
sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our
hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.
26
That
means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better
and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives.
Each of us is an original.
