Pray as you begin, “Let me hear the cry of someone who is
longing for a better world, who is tired of the suffering and death we see all
around us. Help me tell them the story of your kingdom.”
When the opportunity arises, tell the story something like
this:
God gave us a beautiful world
that we continue to mess up
through war and violence, greed and injustice, sickness and suffering,
pollution and destruction.
God has a plan to make everything
right one day. At the heart of
the plan is Jesus, who brought light
into this dark world, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, peace to the
tormented, acceptance for the social outcasts, hope for those in despair.
Through no fault of his own,
Jesus was crucified. Demonstrations
of God’s love brought him into conflict with those whose power and status were
best maintained in darkness.
Even at the end, Jesus
taught his followers as he humbly washed the disciples’ feet, prayed “not
my will but yours be done” and asked forgiveness for the very people who crucified
him.
The death of Jesus was not the
end, but a dramatic new beginning.
On Friday it looked like the forces of darkness had won a great victory, but
God said “NO!” and raised Jesus from the dead, giving him a new body that would
never again experience suffering and death.
Jesus will return one day as king
of kings and lord of lords. It
will be a day of judgment for those who preferred darkness and rejected the
light of life. It will also be a day of resurrection and celebration as the
living and the dead alike receive new bodies, a new heaven and a new earth to
enjoy forever.
Until that final day comes, God has given us a mission to proclaim the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus, and to work in the power of the Holy Spirit to
see God’s kingdom be made visible day by day.
