Anyone do the brackets for this year’s March Madness? I did not but I knew who I was rooting for when I watched the finals. I always go with the underdog. The underdog, San Diego State was trailing at the half. They tried for the comeback like they did in other games but in the end, they came up short and U-Conn took home the hardware. The comeback, sometimes it comes up short but sometimes it does happen.They trailing 33-0 at the half and came back to win it 39-36,the greatest NFL comeback of all time. Yes, it was the Vikings over the Colts, Dec 17, 2022. The unexpected reversal of things, the turnaround comeback that no one saw coming. What looks like defeat turns to victory, a humiliation, ends up a triumph. These kinds of reversals are the stuff of which novels are written. Today we celebrate the greatest comeback story ever told, the greatest reversal of all time. Mocked by the crowds and abandoned by his friends, he was nailed to a cross to suffer an agonizing death. But as we know that wasn’t the end of the story. Easter morning the tomb was empty. The crucified Jesus is raided up by God to new life as the Risen Christ. This great reversal makes for the greatest story ever told. So, what about Jesus’ fascinating story do you find most compelling and hopeful? And where is it in your life that you are being invited to trust enough that if you can die to the way you think things should be that in the end God will bring about something even better than you could have ever hoped for? That’s the miracle of Resurrection. It happened for the crucified and defeated Jesus. It’s the miracle of the Resurrection that can happen for you and me. As Archbishop Treon from Venezuela told us a few weeks back, “The Jesus who came out of his tomb now invites us to come out of our tombs.” To come out of our tombs of complacency. To come out of our tombs of preoccupation with self. To come out of our tombs of cynicism, or whatever tomb it is, that is keeping us from living fully alive. The great reversal, the great comeback, it happened Easter morning for the crucified Jesus raised to new life. And it can happen for us any time we trust enough to die to the old way so that God raise up in us to a new way. It’s the abundant life God wants for all of us. Where it is that you could use a little Resurrection in your life? Come out of your tomb of fear and see what God has waiting for you.
