Part 2: Resurrection Rendezvous

Stephanie and I will be celebrating our fifteenth wedding anniversary on May 3rd!  We have a pretty cool weekend planned and it will be nice to get away.  One day, I will have to share with you on how we got together.  It is definitely one blog post that will take a little time to explain...but it is so cool!  


Anyways, a few anniversaries ago I went to all the places that were important to us and  the places where God did some amazing things in our lives.  I took some pictures of those places and made a book for us.  It was definitely nostalgic but also a great reminder of God's faithfulness to us.  I think Jesus loves nostalgia and the theme of remembrance.  For example, take the bread and wine.  Every time we take it we do it in "remembrance of Him"!  Memories are very powerful!  Some for good, some for evil.  That's why Jesus wants to own our memories.  I believe the Spirit of God can use memories to spur us on!


6-7 He said, "Don't be afraid.  I know you're looking for Jesus the Nazarene, the one they nailed on the cross.  He's been raised up; He's here no longer.  You can see for yourselves that the place is empty.  NOW ON YOUR WAY.  Tell the disciples and Peter that He is going on ahead of you to Galilee.  You'll see Him there, exactly as He said."


Last blog we dived into a Resurrection Rendezvous; a place where Christ wants to meet us to revive and  refresh.  But he also had a mission for us.  Why did Jesus choose Galilee?  I believe the power of remembrance takes effect here.  Jesus brings his boys full circle.  They get refreshed and renewed just at the sight of Jesus, being with Him...touching Him.  But there is some urgency even in the angels voice.  "Now-on your way"!  Even though he is just telling them to hurry to the rendezvous...there is a mission that needs to be completed.  


6-7 He said, "Don't be afraid.  I know you're looking for Jesus the Nazarene, the one they nailed on the cross.  He's been raised up; He's here no longer.  You can see for yourselves that the place is empty.  NOW ON YOUR WAY.  Tell the disciples and Peter that He is going on ahead of you to Galilee.  You'll see Him there, exactly as He said."


Why Galilee?  It is where they met.  I like how Michael Card describes it in his book, Mark:  the Gospel of Passion.  He talks about how we imagine what it would have been like on that day.  It was a warm spring day in Galilee.  Warm sand between the toes, not even the sound of a bird in the air.  They go out fishing and they net a huge number of fish.  Then Jesus whips His hair around and says, "I will make you fishers of men".  It is cozy....it is dramatic...it is....wrong!  the "hairwhip" is my addition to the  inaccurate imagination.


As Michael Card states, Jesus just returned from the wilderness and John is now in prison.  Needless to say, there is some weariness for Jesus here.  The shores of Galilee are not sandy but rocky.  Galilee is not a cozy or silent, noise is everywhere since this is a major flyway between Africa and Europe...birds flying constantly through Galilee.  Even the scripture. "I will make you fishers of men", is a reference to a scripture in Jeremiah 16:16.  "Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them."  But this scripture is actually referring to judgement...not exciting evangelism!  There is an "Ominous" feeling in the air as Michael card states.


I say all that to say that even though there is excitement in the air with Christ's resurrection, there is also a mission that needs to be accomplished and it won't be fun by any stretch of the imagination.  I ask myself, "Am I looking for cozy faith or real faith?  Am I following the resurrected Jesus to a rough, noisy, fish smelling mission field...or a cozy, predictable, smooth sailing mission field?"  How 'bout you?