Is That All You Got?

In my household, we have carry on the one tradition that has been passed on from one generation to the next. I am talking about the livingroom wrestling match. When Melissa and Amanda were quite young, I would wrestle with them on the floor in our livingroom almost daily. We had a lot of fun with our wrestling matches. Melissa would deliver the flying elbow from the top of the couch, and Mandy would smash me with her foam chair. They learned that stuff from a dad who was raised on Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper. I carry this on with my 7 year old daughter Emily. She prefers to hit me with the flying body block off of the top of the couch. In all reality, as they really tried, they could never hurt me nor take me down. (Granted, this is true when we stay true to the no hitting below the belt rule.) but they could come at me, but never defeat me.

In the same way, Jesus endured everything that was thrown at him. He was betrayed, lied about, gossiped about, mocked, spit upon, beaten, tortured and even killed. But yet, this Easter, we celebrate the fact that Jesus could not be held by death. Death was not a good fit for Jesus. Because everything was thrown at Jesus to defeat Him, but yet, he was still standing in the end. He wins!

1 Corinthians 15:54-55 says, "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" I dont know about you, but when I read this, It sounds like a taunt to me.

I believe that the Cross is God's way of saying to the Enemy, "Is that all you got?" Jesus is saying, "Lie about me, make me lonely, mock me, spit at me, kill me; but yet, I am alive and cooking fish with the disciples (John 15). Is that all you got?" The Cross asks you and I if we believe that God has won. Do we believe that He will carry us through our wounds of the past, uncertainties of the upcoming day, and the anxieties of the future? Who's winning? If we are constantly discouraged, then we are not letting God win in our lives. If we are defined by those who have wounded us, God is not winning in our lives. If Jesus is the victor, we do not have to live like victims.

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