Published: October 10, 2008 09:13 pm            

THE JOY LADY: Tale of an empty tomb became truth of Christ

TERRE HAUTE — People sometimes tend to tell some pretty amazing tales, passing them off as truth, when in reality their stories are too fantastic, too outlandish, too outrageous to be believed.

For instance, there’s the funny-yet-not-really-funny tale of a young man who was arrested about a month ago because his mission failed. At least that’s the way he put it in his report to the police. He said he had been dropped by a military helicopter to the roof of the Knoxville Museum of Art because he was on a special mission to “defuse and confiscate” a Soviet-made warhead that was concealed in a “blue, plastic cow sculpture” in the basement of the museum. But it turned out that he, “special agent with the United States Illuminati, Badge Number 0931” had been dropped off at the wrong museum. He was glad to be rescued from his hiding place in the air duct system of the museum. Now could the police kindly take him to the correct museum in search of that allusive blue cow? He thinks it might be hiding out amidst the displays at a museum in Memphis, not in Knoxville. (You can read the whole story on WBIR-TV’s Web site, www.wbir.com.)

Then there’s the tale of one Mr. Fox who ran over a fox and wanted to save the fox’s bushy tail. He put the fox in the back seat of his vehicle and headed towards his own Fox home. Soon the merely unconscious fox awoke in the back seat of Fox’s vehicle and made his presence known. While Fox was trying to save himself from fox bites, he (Fox) lost control of the vehicle and it flipped over several times before coming to rest on its side. The two-legged Fox was not injured: the four-legged fox was dead. Again. Alas, the tale of the coveted tail ends in tragedy. (You can read the whole story on the above’s Web site.)

Don’t forget the story of two people walking along a road to a country village had a pretty fantastic story to tell. On the surface it seemed too outlandish, too strange, too much like complete nonsense to be taken seriously. On that Sunday, they were strolling along, talking about the weird things that had been reported to them. “Do you think it’s true?” one might have asked. The other might have said, “Peter said it was true. He said he saw it with his own eyes.” “But that’s the part that makes no sense. How could he see what was not there to see?” I’m not sure of their exact conversation, but it’s not hard to imagine their difficulty in understanding what had just happened. (You can read the whole story in Luke 24:13-35.)

Jesus walked up to these two as they were discussing the events and asked what they were talking about. Not knowing who Jesus was, they asked if He was a visitor to the area. Surely only a visitor would not be aware of the things going on. “What things?” Jesus asked. They answered, “About Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed … the chief priests handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified Him. But we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel … some of our women amazed us … they went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find His body … they had seen angels who said He was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but Him they did not see.”

Then, in a truly outlandish fashion, Jesus began to tell them about how the Christ, the Messiah had to suffer before He entered His glory. Then He began to tell them about Himself, beginning with Moses and the prophets and going through all the Hebrew scriptures. But they still didn’t know that Jesus was Jesus and was talking about Himself! The day was drawing to a close and they asked Him to come stay with them, and it was when He was eating with them that their eyes were opened and the realized that it was Jesus–in the flesh–right before their eyes. As soon as they recognized Him, Jesus disappeared from their sight.

Suddenly, their fantastic tale of an empty tomb became their Fantastic Truth of the Risen Christ. It was outlandish, fantastic, and outrageous beyond belief. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God,” (1st Corinthians 1:18).

You can read the whole story (or at least part of the story) of Verna Davis on www.thejoylady.com.

        

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