Early on Sunday morning, the women went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. They entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. They were much perplexed about what had happened to the body of Jesus. Then, they saw two men stood by them in shining garments who said to them: “Why seek ye the living among the dead?....”
“Why seek ye the living among the dead?” This statement keeps me thinking: “Are we looking for things at the wrong places?” And true enough, we often find ourselves looking for things at the wrong places.
A story is told of a man under a street lamp carefully searching for something. A policeman came along and asked him what he’s looking for and the man answered, “My keys.” The policeman went down on his knees and helped the man searched for the keys. After a fruitless search, the policeman asked the man if he was sure that he had lost his keys here. The man answered, “No, not here. I lost them back there — but it’s much too dark over there to find them.”
We laugh at the man’s stupidity. But it’s a beautiful illustration of a common failure of mankind: We keep looking for things in all the wrong places.
Some look for happiness in the bottle of wine only to end up as drunkards and creating more problems. Some look for happiness in the smart phones only to become addicted and which cause chaos to their lives - their work, school, and families.
Some want spirituality but look for it in the wrong places. They go to yoga and meditation. What they get are some health benefits but no spirituality. Some go to temples and mountains to find spirituality. They may feel spiritual but they have not found God.
Many today are searching for the true church in the wrong places. They visit churches with large fanciful building and big crowds. The church of God is not defined by her building or the number of worshippers. God does not dwell in temples made with hands (Acts 17:24). The church is a body of believers, not a building (1 Pet 2:9). If they want to find the true church, they should go to the word of God and look at the pattern first. For, without knowing what the true church is like, how can they identify the true church when they see it?
Some want to know if baptism is necessary for remission of sins. They go around various “churches” (denominations) looking for answer. The only correct answer is found in the bible (Mark 16:16). If they are truly concerned about the eternal destiny of their soul, they should go to the Bible to look for the answer.
“Why seek ye the living among the dead?” The women visited the tomb expecting to see a dead body. But Christ has risen and is alive; He is not dead. You don’t go to a cemetery to look for a lost person, do you? These women had witnessed Jesus death and burial. Their minds were on His death. It is clear from the angel’s question that they won’t find Jesus among the dead.
Are you the living among the dead? Some Christians still feel it is fine to do things which the world does such as drinking beer, smoking, clubbing, swearing, wearing immodestly, and etc. They call it Christian liberty. But that is not Christian liberty but continuing in sin. It is fulfilling the lust of the flesh. Paul wrote: “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom 13:14).
Whenever we continue to indulge in the satisfying of the flesh, we are then the living among the dead. God wants His people to be holy and not be following in the ways of the world (1 Pet 1:15-16). We are therefore not to partake in the very sins which we have been delivered from?
We need to be doing the work of the Lord and not seeing how close we can live our lives to the world of sin. We must not be living among the dead. It would be a sad day if Christ were to come today and see us living among the dead. Does He need to walk into a nightclub to look for a Christian? It is not a place He expects to find His believing children.
How about you? When Christians look for you, do they look for you among the dead or among the living?
Jimmy Lau
Psa 119:97 Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
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