“Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” (Mark 15:6-7)
The followers of Jesus had never heard of anyone rising from the dead. Sure, Jesus had raised others, but how could anyone raise himself? Neither could the disciples. They had no idea that Jesus was going to do what He did. Even after the appearance of the risen Savior they still had doubts.
Most of us know what it feels like to be bewildered and confused. Most of us feel this way in the light of the events of these last few years with the increasing rise of violence, terrorism, religious persecution, corruption in government and the acceptance of immorality and sin as the norm. We feel overwhelmed by these things for we feel have little or no power to correct, influence or change them.
Our trials and tribulations fuel our doubts so that we wind up thinking that maybe God is not who He says He is, that He has forgotten us or is not really in control of what is going on. Maybe we think that life would be much easier if Christianity were not so radical. Certainly the message we bring is hard for people to accept since it rules out all other religions and it involves them having to admit they are sinners. More people would like us, we would have more friends, if we only told them things that they wanted to hear, things that would not make them feel so wicked or useless.
But the gospel of Jesus we preach can change the world. Therefore we cannot water it down; we cannot change it to make it more acceptable to our neighbors for our human sin and inability to do good is at the core of the gospel as is salvation in Christ Jesus alone. So we must hold fast to our faith. Jesus is the one true God the only Lord and Savior of all mankind. He has proven this by rising from the dead.