Standing Down

– by Rhonda Fleming

I can just imagine that first Good Friday . . . the angel armies stood at attention, with their swords at the ready.

One second they would look at Jesus… waiting for a nod… a quick look… or possibly a whisper.

The next second they would turn and look on the face of the Father… awaiting a command… anticipating a last-minute maneuver.

But nothing ever came.

Instead, they had to watch.

They had to look on in horror as their Eternal King, the very Son of God, surrendered himself to the angry mob… allowed his body to be abused… his royalty to be mocked… his beauty to be marred.

As the hours wore on, I can see their swords slowly dropping to their sides as, one by one, they realized they would remain untested this day.

After all the battles they had fought and won down through the ages, to have to remain silent, to have to stand down during this one, had to have been devastating.

But this was a battle only Jesus could fight.

Because this was a war only Jesus could win.

And He had to do it alone.

.

.

.

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Finally, it was finished. He said so.

I’m sure watching his lifeless body being carried away was almost more than they could bear.

Then they had to endure deafening hours of silence, when His sweet voice could not be heard in Heaven or on earth.

Eventually, in the early hours of Sunday morning, one of those lightning-white heavenly warriors got to perform an unusual task.

His assignment? To create an earthquake . . . which he was more than happy to do.

He caused it by hurtling himself from Heaven to earth and rolling away the huge boulder that was being used to seal Jesus’s borrowed tomb.

The stunned Roman guards watched this bright being easily move the stone, they started shaking uncontrollably and fell to the ground like dead men.

Then, the angel sat down on the stone and waited to see which of Jesus’s followers would be the first to show up.

Ah, the women. Of course.

They arrived at the first hint of sunrise, prepared to anoint Jesus’s dead body — as soon as they could find someone to move that huge stone out of the way.

To their surprise, the stone had already been moved, and inside there wasn’t a body to anoint. However, there were a couple of angels where Jesus’s body should have been.

The women were so shocked and frightened, they fell to the ground, too.

Then the angels got to share with those faithful women the best news they could have imagined hearing that Sunday morning.

“He is not here; he has risen!”

And two thousand years later, it’s still the best news anyone can imagine.

Jesus is not on the cross.

And Jesus is not in the tomb.

It is finished.

He is risen!

And the same power that raised Him from the dead dwells in everyone who has placed their trust in Him.

And because of that, life will never be the same.

Happy Resurrection Weekend!!

¹⁹ I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power ²⁰ that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm! (Ephesians 1:19-20 TPT)

This post was written by Rhonda Fleming.

Rhonda is the author of Treasure Seeker Bible Study Workbook and the founder of Anchoring Hope.