Easter > Holy Week Devotionals > Good Friday > Good Friday Extra
WHEN ALL SAD THINGS COME UNTRUE
BY DAVID BARRETT
But Sam lay back, and stared with open mouth, and for a moment, between bewilderment and great joy, he could not answer. At last he gasped: ‘Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?’
‘A great Shadow has departed,’ said Gandalf, and then he laughed, and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count. It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known. But he himself burst into tears. Then, as a sweet rain will pass down a wind of spring and the sun will shine out the clearer, his tears ceased, and his laughter welled up, and laughing he sprang from his bed.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
When everything sad is going to come untrue.
I don’t know of a better description of what the resurrection of Jesus Christ means than how Tolkien described the conclusion of Lord of the Rings. The great shadow had departed. Tears ceased. Laughter welled up. Everything sad had come untrue.
That is what the resurrection of Jesus Christ promises: even though we still walk through the valley of the great shadow of death and tears have not ceased, there is a day coming when everything sad will come untrue.
That is because the resurrection means that the hope Jesus purchased on the cross was real.
Here is what that means practically for you: The resurrection means that God has the final word on everything sad in your life and will make it untrue.
The Resurrection Means All Pain Will Come Untrue
We live in a world where everything we love will eventually fall apart and fade away. Perhaps it's broken relationships or death, and relationships that you thought you could depend on have unraveled before your eyes. Perhaps you have watched someone go through the last steps of dementia or Alzheimer’s, and you’ve seen that last bitter struggle as someone you love so dearly is no longer really with you, at least the way that they were.
The resurrection means that Jesus will one day resurrect us in glorified bodies decked out in white robes and reunited with loved ones. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. He will take away every pain and He will heal us eternally.
When Joni Erickson Tada was 14 years old, she was in a diving accident. She has spent the last 40 years of her life as a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair. She said this about the pain she experiences in this life and how God has used it and will one day deal with it in the life to come:
“I always say that in a way, I hope I can take my wheelchair to heaven with me—I know that‘s not biblically correct, but if I were able, I would have my wheelchair up in heaven right next to me when God gives me my brand new, glorified body. And I will then turn to Jesus and say, “Lord, do you see that wheelchair right there? Well, you were right when you said that in this world we would have trouble, because that wheelchair was a lot of trouble! But Jesus the weaker I was in that thing, the harder I leaned on you. And the harder I leaned on you, the stronger I discovered you to be. So, thank you for what you did in my life through that wheelchair. And now,” I always say, “you can send that wheelchair to hell, if you would like.”
Even when you are in the darkest nights of pain and it feels like the future is bleak, the resurrection means that Jesus can bring new life in the darkest of graves.
Just think of the imagery of Jesus rising at dawn. Jesus could have been raised any time of the day, but could he have risen at dawn because of the inspiring imagery? Remember the scene in The Dark Knight when Harvey Dent addresses the city in the midst of the Joker’s terror? He said, “The night is darkest just before dawn. But dawn is coming.”
Because of the resurrection, the dawn has come, and the dawn is coming. Jesus is alive and all pain will come untrue.
The Resurrection Means Death Will Come Untrue
This is why Paul can say, “O death where is your victory, O death where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Jesus is going to bring our bodies out of the grave just like His and we will be reunited with Him for eternity. Billy Graham once said, “One day you’ll hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe it. I’ll be more alive than ever, I’ll just have changed addresses.”
We’ve heard that. Billy Graham died a few years ago, and his address changed.
Because Jesus is alive and rose from the dead it means that death itself will come untrue.
Another giant of the 20th century was Donald Grey Barnhouse, a pastor and a professor at Princeton. His first wife passed away when he was young and as he was driving on the way back from the funeral, one of his kids asked, “Daddy, I don’t understand, where did Mommy go? I don’t understand what it means that she died.”
He was of course an emotional wreck, trying to figure out how to explain death to his kids, when all of a sudden, a truck passed by them on the road and cast a shadow over the car. He looked back at his kids and said, “Guys would you rather have been hit by the truck or hit by the shadow?”
Of course, they would rather be hit by the shadow because the shadow doesn’t hurt. The shadow only darkens things for a moment. Because of the resurrection, Jesus got hit by the truck of death so you could get hit by the shadow. Yes, death is still here. And yes death still causes us pain.
However, it can be faced and overcome because of the resurrection.
Conclusion: Springing from Our Beds
So here is my question for you on Good Friday. Are you looking toward the full magnitude of Sunday? Imagine Gary was really late for church. Jud and the band go off the stage, but not Gary. It’s just awkward silence. 5 minutes pass and everyone is looking around, trying to figure out what’s happening. When all of a sudden, Gary bursts into the Worship Center saying, “Don’t leave, don’t leave, don’t leave. Wow, you guys would not believe the morning I’ve had! I was on my way over here, coming down Renner and I had a flat tire. So I get out to change the flat tire and as I’m changing the flat tire one of the lugnuts flies off and goes out onto the middle of Renner. So I go out to get it. I reach down to pick it up and right as I’m reaching down to get it, I hear a horn.
Weirdest thing.
So I turn and wouldn’t you know it there’s an 18-wheeler coming at me at 70 mph. He hits me and knocks me in the air 50 yards. I guess he didn’t see that he hit me because after I landed he backed up and ran over me again. Well, I guess he felt that so he stopped and then backed up and ran over me again. I got hit by an 18-wheeler going 70 mph and ran over twice! That was super inconvenient. So I got up and found the lug nut and put the tire back on, and drove over here. That’s why I’m late!”
What would your response be?
If you got hit by an 18-wheeler going 70 mph, you would look different. You would walk differently. You would talk differently. You would see things a lot differently. Everything about you would be different. There’s no way to be hit by that kind of force and stay just like you were.
Here it is. There’s no way for you to be hit with the magnitude of the resurrection of Jesus and go on like business as usual. There’s no way for you to be hit with the resurrection of Jesus and do anything else but laugh, spring from your bed, and follow Jesus toward the day when all sad things come untrue!
