Easter Through the Years

Past Writings from The Salvation Army

War Cry Magazine

He is not Here

                                                                                                  Commissioner W.R.H. Goodier, 1979

How disappointing to seek someone, only to be told that “he is not here.”  The long search, the difficulties and dangers of the journey, the time spent, the effort put forth and the happy anticipation of meeting, all come to naught.

Had the shepherds tending their flocks on the Judean hills sought the announced infant Savior, Christ the Lord, at the Bethlehem inn, they would have been given the same answer, “He is not here.”  No one of so great importance had come for lodging.  In fact, the only baby the innkeeper was aware of was the little one born just a few hours earlier to the woman and her carpenter husband from Nazareth who were staying in the stable, there being no room for them in the inn.

If the wise men from the East had addressed to the innkeeper the same question they directed to the scribes and priests in Jerusalem, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” the response would have been the same: “He is not here.”  The best room, the bridal suite or royal apartment, had been sold to anyone who could pay the price.  There was not a single room left.  The inn was filled to capacity, and certainly no king had been registered.

But the innkeeper, the residents of Bethlehem, the Jerusalem scribes and chief priests, and Herod the king were mistaken.  He was there!  Identified by the shepherds through the description provided by the angels, “wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”  Revealed to the eastern travelers by the star that led them to the place where the baby Jesus lay.  As they worshiped Him, their joy was over whelming.

Some 12 years later, Mary and Joseph were returning with Jesus to Nazareth from Jerusalem.  They were preoccupied by friends and relatives who traveled with them along the heavily trafficked road.  They missed Jesus, and inquired as to His whereabouts among the several families of kinsmen.  The same alarming answer was given to their anxious inquiry.  “He is not here.”  There was no alternative.  Though a day’s journey from the city, they had to return to Jerusalem, where after three days they found Him in the Temple, engaged in discussion with the learned doctors.  Because Mary and Joseph had supposed Jesus was with them as they made their way homeward, they suffered three days of anguish.  They had lost Jesus!  Everything had to be abandoned while they searched for Him.

Many make the grave mistake of assuming Jesus to be with them.  Engrossed in other activities, they eventually realize He is not there.  And there is no way to find Jesus again but to return to the place where they parted company with Him.

About 21 years later, one early Sunday morning following the crucifixion of Jesus at Calvary, the sorrowing women visited the sepulcher.  They had come to bestow upon the dead body of Jesus their devotion and respect with sweet-smelling spices.  They were astonished to find an empty tomb.  When they questioned the two heavenly creatures they encountered, one of them declared, “He is not here.”

Imagine the consternation, the pain those words caused.  The mysterious disappearance of Jesus’ added bewildering anguish to hearts already broken with grief.  What desecration, to disturb the dead!  Could they not let His body rest in peace?  Where had they taken Him?  What did the angel mean by “He is risen”?

What the angel had declared was fact.  Jesus was no longer in the tomb.  He was not longer a corpse.  “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” the angel said. Nevertheless there is a very real sense in which He is here.  In the darkness of the predawn hour Mary Magdelene saw through eyes dimmed by tears the form of a man she took to be the gardener.  He turned and spoke her name, “Mary.”  In that moment she recognized Jesus, her Lord, and joyfully responded, “Master.”  Yes, He is here!

In the darkest hour of despair and grief, the revelation of the risen Christ dispelled the gloom of sorrow.  New understanding flooded Mary’s soul with the light of His presence.  The heaviness lifted from her breast and was replaced with sweet peace and indescribable joy.

So it is today.  In the darkness of doubt and dismay, in the time of sorrow and sadness, the tendency is to conclude that He is not here.  However, when faith penetrates the consciousness to crystallize the evidence of things not seen, blind eyes are opened to Jesus.  The negative becomes positive.  In gratitude the heart sings a new song: “He is risen.  Hallelujah!”

Through the power of the Resurrected Lord life is changed.  No human situation is beyond His healing touch.  The truth of the chorus comes with assurance for the troubled soul:

Standing somewhere in the shadows you’ll find Jesus,

He’s the only One who cares and understands.

Standing somewhere in the shadows you will find Him,

And you’ll know Him by the nailprints in His hands.

In the world around us we see the effects of the curse of sin, introduced by the first Adam.  The stamp of the Prince of Darkness is imprinted upon mankind and his world.  Its ugliness causes all thoughtful, sensitive people to question.  The weight of guilt burdens the soul.

People of various cultures or political persuasion frequently fail to recognize or appreciate the rights of others to pursue a different lifestyle.  They often resort to force in an attempt to impose their ideas on others.  One nation, in a desperate effort to obtain territory or to gain resources essential to economic stability, attacks another.  The result is the senseless loss of human life, the destruction of cities, the enslavement of people.  We see this wanton waste and logically conclude “He is not here.”

In a world capable of producing enough food to feed every living being, the fact that thousands die daily of starvation is abhorrent.  Because of national interests and structural systems based upon selfish motives, surplus crops are dumped while people go without.  Nothing could be farther from the teachings of Jesus, and we are convinced He is not here.

There are those individuals who demand what is not theirs.  They take what they want, not caring what hurt it causes others.  A man runs off with another man’s wife and the children are exposed to the tragedy of a broken home.  A youth holds up a bank, and in the nervous excitement pulls the trigger, and the teller lies dead.  The appallingly high rate of crime, the decline in morals, the absence of integrity- all point to a sick society and we know He is not here.

It is true Jesus is not part of the scene.  He cannot be identified with jealousy, selfishness, dishonesty, inhumanity, atrocity or crime.  But can we rightly say that He is not here?  Though divine, did Jesus not also become truly and properly man?  And as a man did He not share in the frailties of human nature?

Surely in His life, suffering and death, Jesus Christ fits the portrait painted by the prophet Isaiah: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not.”

And why did Jesus suffer?  The answer is found in the same Scripture: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 

That is the answer.  He is here, the Risen Lord.  He is alive in the world to bring redemption.  With resurrection power He who said, “Lo, I will be with you until the end of time,” comes to change the world by changing the individual.  “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live,” is His promise.

Through the miracle of the resurrection there can dawn an Easter morning in your soul.  Your spirit will then confirm the truth that He is here, for He is risen.  You will find yourself joining in singing the great Easter hymn, not detachedly as a member of the congregation simply following the words and melody, but rather raising your voice in tribute and triumph:

Up from the grave He arose,

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.

He arose a victor from the dark domain,

And He lives forever with His saints to reign.

He arose!  He arose!  Hallelujah! Christ arose!