Matthew 28:6 “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”
I was listening to a TED Talk one time and the presenter opened with, “The person on your left is a liar; the person on your right is a liar; the person sitting in your seat is a liar; we are all liars!” I like to use it as an example of an effective attention-getter for my Public Speaking students. At least until the audience starts throwing tomatoes!
I don’t know about you, but I’m having trouble these days knowing who to believe. Attributes like faithfulness, integrity, and “speaking the truth even when it hurts” have become sparse commodities. But it’s really nothing new. Even the Psalmist lamented hundreds of years ago, “All men are liars” (Psalm 116:11). As humans, we all have a sin problem, a sin problem that sometimes results in us not keeping our word.
The significance of knowing there is One who always kept his word, who never fudged the truth, or broke a promise, can’t be overstated. Even when the claims he made sounded outrageous, Jesus always followed through. He did exactly what he said he would do.
- Jesus prophesied Jerusalem would be overrun and the Temple destroyed….it happened just as he said (Matt 24).
- Jesus told Peter he was the Rock upon which he would build his church….it happened just as he said (Matt. 16:18).
- Jesus told the woman who’d been bleeding twelve years that her faith had healed her….it happened just as he said (Matt 9:2).
Out of the many evidences of Jesus’ unwavering veracity, the Easter season draws us once again to the most important thing Jesus ever promised:
- “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Matt. 16:21). It all happened just as he said.
Jesus kept his word in spades. Not even death could stop him from doing what he said he would do! He rose from the dead and he said all who believe in him would too. That remains true even if the person sitting next to us is a liar!