A Case of Outcomes

On the final day of our Lord’s life, his opponents rushed to judgment, claiming victory too soon. Since they could kill him, he could not in their minds be the Messiah because “Messiah abides forever.” (John 12:34). They took his death to mean the wrong thing, so they mocked him, called him a deceiver (Matthew 27:63), and made the fatal mistake of placing a guard at his tomb. As a result, those soldiers froze in fear when an angel came to open the sealed tomb.

Now the religious leaders had no excuse when they tried to lie their way out of the outcome and bribed the soldiers to claim the disciples stole his body while the soldiers slept (Matthew 28:11-15).

“The future of an event belongs to the event.” The ensuing resurrection of Jesus established a different outcome for his death and provided a different meaning for it. It gave stupendous proof that he was the Messiah as he had claimed.

As yet another outcome of the cross, we are observing these emblems in memorial of what his resurrection guarantees. The meaning of the cross is of utmost importance in salvation, and his resurrection is of utmost importance in guaranteeing that meaning as an outcome in us.