The Lord has a wonderful sense of humor. He’s gotten me again, just now.
You may notice that the post immediately preceding this one, put up earlier today, is titled, “Are we on for tomorrow?”
It’s about the way social norms are trending toward non-confirmation and being noncommittal. It’s a comment on culture. It’s about saying we’re going to show up, then not showing up, or simply refusing to comment one way or the other on our potential attendance because we don’t want to make appointments when something better might come along.
The humor here is that I did not mean to post that today.
WordPress allows bloggers to schedule posts, which I often do. As I write things, I schedule them for faraway dates, sometimes many months, so that I can move them up when I want them. (There is also a “Draft” function, which, evidently, I should use more often, but I like to have posts scheduled for a variety of reasons.)
With today’s earlier post, I’d written it several months ago and scheduled it, arbitrarily, for today, April 4, not thinking at all that it would be the day before Easter, the best and most important day of the year!
Irony is befitting of the supernatural.
On the one hand, the post has nothing to do with Holy Week or Jesus or faith. It may have struck readers — at least those who know my writing — strange to post it today, and maybe even deceptive with that title.
On the other hand, here we have a strangely lovely reference to God’s timing. After all, God keeps his appointments.
Before his death, Jesus said he would return. On the facebook event page for Resurrection, Salvation, and a New Creation, Jesus didn’t RSVP “Maybe.” He said, “Going,” and his word can be counted on.
Jesus committed to rising tomorrow. God committed to raising him. The Overcomer says he overcomes the world, and we can bank on it.
When the women and the apostles checked out the tomb, they found it empty and angels saying, “No, he isn’t here.” He wasn’t here, because he said he’d be there, risen, alive, not boxed in the dark domain, but bursting forth in all the bright victory of redemption, of hope, grace, and love.
Easter, the day of the world’s great resurgence, is the greatest kept commitment of all time. Nothing better could ever come along. It is The Event of history, the party of eternity, the hinge on which all our pages turn.
And Jesus did not bail.
Now, do I really think God ordained for my post to come on this day for some grand purpose of pointing a few readers to the appointment of the resurrection? Maybe, maybe not.
But whether it was providential or not, it can become fortuitous, it can become beautiful, it can acquire meaning by turning it toward Jesus, words shifted like a weather-vane by the wind of the Spirit.
So somebody make a facebook event. Write it on your calendars. Set aside all your other plans. He isn’t here, because he made an appointment to rise, and now he’s risen.
Tomorrow is the greatest day of the year because it celebrates the greatest day of all time.
Jesus didn’t miss it. You shouldn’t either. Because it’s going down for sure. He’s coming up for real!
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