“He is not here—He is risen, just as He said He would.”
—Matthew 28:6, Phillips Translation
Barely awake this morning, I looked out the window at the emerging glow of light on the eastern horizon and found myself kinda-sorta singing the first verse of that great Easter hymn: “Christ the Lord is risen today! Hallelujah!” And it stopped me in my tracks, maybe because I was struggling to remember all the words or maybe because working with words and finding the right words to say things clearly has been my lifelong career. I was suddenly reminded once more of one of the littlest throw-away words of all time in that hymn, one that explodes with impact this Resurrection Day morning:
“Is.”
It may be a tiny word but underestimate its power at your own risk. Because as that old hymn declares, “Is” is not a has-been, used-to-be, might-be kind of word. Dictionaries state matter-of-factly that “is” means “to be” or better still, “to be present,” but for we who Believe, that means “is” is everything! “Is” is active. It is right now and relevant. It’s an awesomely amazing little word that reminds our life-numbed minds this morning that…“God’s not dead He IS surely alive!”
“Yes, but tell me again, how can I know for sure?”
Because from before the beginning of time, God has said about Himself: “I AM the Lord! That IS My name!” (Isaiah 42:8, Amplified). From the garden tomb on a morning like this, the angel tells startled and confused visitors looking for Jesus: “He isn’t here! He IS risen from the dead, just as He said would happen!” (Matthew 28:6, New Living Translation). And in the last chapters of history, God assures us nothing has changed about Him and never will, and best of all that this story is not over: “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who IS, who always was, and who IS still to come—the Almighty One!” (Revelation 1:8, New Living Translation)
And because “Christ, the Lord, IS risen today!,” I can rest in knowing He still reigns over this (crazy) world He created and that He is ever interceding for me (Hebrews 7:25), every single day. He’s not a far-off, too busy with other things, “try-to-go-figure-it-out-yourself-and-call-Me-if-you-need-anything” God, but the One and only “Emmanuel—God with us” 24/7 God. And whenever we need reminding, convincing or reassurance that “is” really means what it says it means, that little stick of dynamite has some pretty amazing synonyms that dictionary writers think are just interesting similar words but to every Believer—especially on Resurrection Sunday—are fire to the bones:
The Lord…abides
The Lord…acts
The Lord…breathes
The Lord…continues
The Lord…does
The Lord…endures
The Lord…holds
The Lord…inhabits
The Lord…lasts
The Lord…lives
The Lord…moves
The Lord…obtains
The Lord…persists
The Lord…prevails
The Lord…remains
The Lord…rests
The Lord…stands
The Lord…stays
Which is why one of the best-known Bible passages of them all will always get us recalibrated, well beyond Easter:
“The Lord IS my Shepherd. I will have everything I need.”
(Psalm 23:1, NLV)
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