Empty Easter

I had a thought the other day about the emptiness of Easter, and the significance of it. 

The emptiness of the Cross was what first caught my attention.  On Friday, the Cross was filled with Christ.  It was filled with His suffering, and with the enormous cesspool of human sin.  But at the end of the day, He was brought down and buried.  The cross had been full.  Full of God Himself, full of blood, full of sin being drowned in the blood. Full of Him emptying Himself out for our salvation.  Poured out, and then....it was over.  That evening, the cross was empty, and would not ever be filled again.  His sacrifice covered us, once, for all. 

That day the Temple was emptied as well.  The Mercy Seat of God, the I AM who sat in the presence of His people in the Tabernacle, and then in the Temple, was now empty.  God no longer dwelt in the Temple.  The veil that separated the Holy God from the chosen people was torn, the doors thrown open by the quake.  What had been living there, now was going to live in us.  So the Temple was emptied.

Sunday, the Tomb was empty.  Having gone to mourn, gone to weep, the women arrived at the tomb to find it ....emptied.  The body they had expected to find was not there."Why do you look for the living among the dead?" (Luke 24:5)  "You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised." (Mark 16:6)  Death had been defeated.  Separation from God had been defeated, proven by an empty tomb.

So then..... what does the emptiness say to me? It says God, in the person of Christ, has emptied my cross of sin.  It says God has emptied the useless Temple-like sacrifices I make to Him, and opened the Temple of Himself to me.  It says He has freed me from a tomb...even if so often I feel like Thomas in needing to feel the wounds in order to not feel so empty myself.

God, grant me rebirth.  Grant me fullness in you.  Fill me with Your love, for the greatest of these is love.