Saturday, March 26, 2016
Holy Saturday
Matthew 27:59-60a When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb...
WORDS OF REMEMBRANCE!
When you visit a cemetery you will find epitaphs on people's gravestones indicating how they want to be remembered. If there had been a marker at Jesus' burial site, what would it have said? What epitaph would you have written in remembrance of Jesus? SON OF GOD, LAMB OF GOD, PRINCE OF PEACE are just a few of many possibilities.
But in a very real sense each one of us can personally stand before the tomb of the Son of God and find these words inscribed: CHRIST REMEMERED ME!
God will never forget you, and that's so much more important than how or if people will remember you after you die. God won't forget because Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, yours included. He buried your sins in His tomb forever. Fifty or sixty years after we leave this world, very few will remember we lived on earth. But God won't forget. When our living Savior returns on the Last Day He will say to you, to me, to all His believers: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34).
Now what about your gravestone? What words of remembrance would you like to mark your burial site?
In a cemetery not far from New York City is a headstone engraved with a single word: FORGIVEN. There is no date of birth, no epitaph. There is only a name and the solitary word FORGIVEN. But that is the greatest word that can be applied to any man or woman, or written on any gravestone.
You are forgiven for Christ's sake, and therefore heaven will never forget you!
On this Easter Eve let us leave the garden tomb with God's peace in our hearts, eager to return tomorrow morning to rejoice in the rest of the amazing story.
