Come And See

Come and See

Women At The Tomb

Read: Matthew 28:5-6

A hush fell on the room as Gina described the week she had spent helping to repair homes hit by Hurricane Katrina. We all had been affected by news of the disaster. When we saw television images of flattened buildings and homeless families, our hearts went out to the victims. But Gina spoke as an eyewitness. She had seen for herself the vast piles of debris where homes, churches, and schools once stood. She had looked into the hopeless faces of people who had lost everything they owned in a matter of seconds. For her, the tragedy was real in a way that the rest of us could only try to comprehend.

God planned for the women at the tomb to be eyewitnesses of the Resurrection. The angel’s word would have been sufficient to convince the women that Jesus had been raised from the dead, but the angel encouraged them to come inside the tomb and see for themselves that Jesus’ body was no longer there. Instead of anointing his body as they had intended, the women had the privilege of being the first to hear the news that he had risen. As they stepped through the opening as into a dream, did they understand that the rock had not been rolled away to let Jesus out, but to let them in?

God still invites people to see the truth. He lovingly calls each of us to come to that place in faith where we can see for ourselves the reality of the sacrifice he made for us. We may not enter the physical tomb where Jesus’ body was laid, but we can read the account of his death, burial, and resurrection in the Bible. Through receiving and believing the gospel, we can have a personal relationship with God. Then, when we talk about him, we’ll be reporting what we have seen and experienced, not just repeating hearsay.

[The angel said,] “Come, see where his body was lying.”

Matthew 28:6