A Stroll through Your Cemetery

“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week,

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary

Went to look at the tomb.”

Matthew 28:1

I am out here today in the cemetery behind the church here in Frankfurt.  I am here today because I want to invite you to take a stroll through the cemeteries of your life – the real ones and the figurative ones.  I know that may sound a little morbid, but hear me out.   This may not be the case for everyone, but for me, one of the most helpful things I have done in working through grief has been to go and visit the graves of those I love – my mom, my dad, my sister.  The first time is always the hardest.  The first time, I came back to Illinois to visit my dad’s grave I just stood there and cried for a good long time.  Each time I go there, I tell my parents things I want them to know about.  Now I know they can’t hear me.  I just need to say those things. It’s part of how God has healed my heart.

So for a moment, I want to invite you to stroll through the cemeteries in your life.  We all have them. Some are real places where the bodies of our loved ones are buried.  Some are figurative.  By that I mean, that we all have things we have “buried” during our walk through life – a painful memory, something we've done or perhaps that we’re doing that we ashamed of… so ashamed of it that we bury it.  We try to hide it from everyone, from ourselves, even from God.  One member of Lamb of God in his testimony talks about helping out at an addiction recovery ministry called Celebrate recovery.  For a long time, he really believed he wasn't like the people who came to that ministry.  He convinced himself that he didn't have the problems they had.  The truth was that he did.  He had simply buried it, hidden it, denied it to himself and others, and then refused to go look in that cemetery.  But burying it didn't make it any less real.  It was only when through that ministry, he started to walk through that part of his life… it was only when he confessed that he had a problem with alcohol, that he started to heal. 

So what are the cemeteries in your life?  What are the things you have buried along the way… the things you have hidden or denied or lied about rather than dealt with.   Now is as good a time as any to go visit those graves. I know it’s not easy but imagine for a moment what would have happened if Mary Magdalene and the other Mary had done the easy thing and stayed home rather than go out to the tomb.  They could have just denied their grief, stayed home, avoided the pain that would surely come from visiting His tomb.  Thank God they didn't avoid His tomb.  When they arrived that morning the stone was already rolled away.  Two men dressed in white greeted them.  “He is not here!” they said, “He is risen!”

They went out to that tomb expecting grief and pain and tears.  Instead they found healing, hope, joy, forgiveness and peace at the empty tomb of Jesus.  Thank God they went to that grave that morning.  For because of what they found, we can go face the graves in our lives.  We can go face our shame because in Jesus our sins are all forgiven.  We can go to those friends we have lost because in Jesus there is reconciliation.  We can go and face the times… the events… the people that have hurt us because in Jesus there is healing. We can confront our addictions, the temptations that really trouble us because in Jesus the victory has already been won.  We can even go and face those very real graves of those we love, whose deaths still bring tears to our eyes and pain to our hearts.  For because His tomb is empty we have a living hope… a living Savior.  In Jesus we come to a place like this and see it entirely different.  This is not a last resting place.  This is a waiting room… waiting for His return… waiting for the Risen One to come again and raise up us and all the dead and give unto all believers in Christ eternal life. It’s a great place to go for a walk.