Faith & Insight: Good news

Our ears were made to hear good news. And not just our ears, but our hearts and minds long for something better than our current situation with a public health crisis, strained economy and personal anxiety. I think that’s why people pore over news all day, they’re waiting for a measure of hope.

And I can think of no better time for good news! In the darkest times, men and women are primed to receive a message of better days. When the loudest words spoken over this world are “infection” and “death”, the future is most pregnant with goods news for us.

It’s no coincidence churches will be empty this Easter as people stay home to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It’s no mistake the annual celebration of new life will take place on a day with perhaps the highest number of deaths from infection. It’s no oversight our world has been emptied of its luster as if ready for a new light to dawn.

In the beginning, as the Spirit of God hovered over the darkness, God first spoke light into being. And since then, light been His most defining physical attribute to the world. He is known as the God who brings hope to the hopeless, help to the helpless and light to the darkness. And this Easter an entire world seems to be pleading for light to dawn once again.

It’s no mistake Easter is being celebrated in the midst of death as Easter in fact began in a tomb. The God who hovered over darkness once again hovered over the darkness of a dead savior. Jesus of Nazareth, crucified by the Romans, was laid in a rock tomb in Jerusalem. He claimed he was making a way to eternal life through forgiveness, but now all anyone saw was a dead man.

But as light dawned in the East that morning, God was once again working in darkness. And as He raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead, a new light dawned on this world. A light of hope that death is not the end, and all who believe in the resurrected Jesus will live eternally with him in a new world to come. This is good news!

It’s the news you’re searching for on your phone, the hope you’re looking for in anxiety, the light you’re longing for in this darkness. Jesus, raised by God from the dead on a Sunday morning, holds the door open to eternal life to all who would come to him. But you must come, you have to trust him.

Good news is only good news if you receive it. Easter is only Easter if you’re ready for new life. Tragically, it seems people will still get sick and die from COVID-19, even with the work of courageous healthcare workers and prayers of countless saints. But knowing there is life after death in Jesus can bring hope to anyone who dares to gaze into the empty tomb and find their empty tomb as well.

Good news Our ears were made to hear good news. And not just our ears, but our hearts and minds long for something better than our current situation with a public health crisis, strained economy and personal anxiety. I think that’s why people pore over news all day, they’re waiting for a measure of hope.

And I can think of no better time for good news.

In the darkest times, men and women are primed to receive a message of better days. When the loudest words spoken over this world are “infection” and “death” the future is most pregnant with goods news for us.

It’s no coincidence churches will be empty this Easter as people stay home to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

It’s no mistake the annual celebration of new life will take place on a day with perhaps the highest number of deaths from infection.

It’s no oversight our world has been emptied of its luster as if ready for a new light to dawn.

And it’s no mistake Easter is being celebrated in the midst of death as Easter in fact began in a tomb. The God who hovered over darkness when he created the world once again hovered over the darkness of a dead savior. Jesus of Nazareth, crucified by the Romans, was laid in a rock tomb in Jerusalem. He claimed he was making a way to eternal life through forgiveness, but now all anyone saw was a dead man.

But as light dawned in the east that morning, God was once again working in darkness. And as he raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead, a new light dawned on this world. A light of hope that death is not the end, and all who believe in the resurrected Jesus will live eternally with him in a new world to come. This is good news!

It’s the news you’re searching for on your phone, the hope you’re looking for in anxiety, the light you’re longing for in this darkness. Jesus, raised by God from the dead on a Sunday morning, holds the door open to eternal life to all who would come to him. But you must come, you have to trust him.

Good news is only good news if you receive it. Easter is only Easter if you’re ready for new life. Tragically, it seems people will still get sick and die from COVID-19, even with the work of courageous healthcare workers and prayers of countless saints.

But knowing there is life after death in Jesus can bring hope to anyone who dares to gaze into the empty tomb and find their own empty tomb as well.

Fred Kingman is lead pastor at Prodigal Church.