Easter Devotional: The Answer of Hope - Day 4

The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. —Matthew 27:62-66

05 Apr, 2023

Today’s devotion is brought to you by Benigno Torrez and translated by Junieth Dinarte. Benigno is a pastor at Compassion’s partner church, Iglesia Bautista Filadelfia, based in Nicaragua.

Christ’s death and resurrection are pillars of our Christian faith.

The apostle Matthew writes that after the day of Preparation, the religious leaders looked for Pilate. They remembered that Jesus had said that He would come back on the third day, but because they didn’t believe in Him and His purpose, they didn’t believe in His power over sin and death either. They were worried about the disciples stealing Jesus’ body and later lying to the people. They didn’t recognize Jesus as Lord and instead said that the disciples’ last deception would be worse than the first. For them, the first deception was believing that Jesus was the Son of God, and the last was that the He had been raised to life again. To make sure that the Jesus’ ministry ended with His death and that no other movement would rise in His name afterward, they asked for guards to be placed outside the tomb.

However, despite all the precautions taken by religious leaders, we know that Jesus Christ rose victorious! And Christ’s resurrection guarantees our resurrection too. No matter how long the wait or how dark the hour, Isaiah 40:29-30 encourages us that the Lord is able to give strength to those who have none and to those who wait on Him. The Bible calls our attention to Isaiah 40:30 especially, because it reminds us that the source of our strength does not come from ourselves or our youth, or from any other agency, but it comes from our faith in God.

So, just as God raised Jesus to life, we are assured that He will raise us to life with Him.

The way in which God will do it is difficult to understand, but in 2 Peter 1:21 He tells us that we will be moved by the Holy Spirit. The translation of the word moved in this context means to have a duty or mandate to fulfill. In this way, we can understand that God will guide us to His purpose and take us to the destination He has planned for us. Like passengers on a boat, He is leading us through the waters and holding us afloat when we journey through storms.

Despite the doubts, fears and perhaps our wish to move or act on our own, when we wait on Him, He will continue moving the ship toward the safety of the purpose that He has designed for us.

And in the end, just as Christ was raised to life, we will be raised to life with Him.

Words by Benigno Torrez with translation by Junieth Dinarte.