Today, I could unleash some really elaborate scheme to try to make you believe something wildly untrue, misleading, and perhaps even disappointing.
I could give you some great piece of news that might have your eyes bugging out and your mind blown away. Or I could spin a tall tale of something so incredibly sad that you’d be relieved when you found out it was false.
I could do that. And then I’d spring out at you like a Jack-in-the-Box with a giant “April Fools!” You might be mad. You might laugh. You might shake your head at my silliness.
For a moment, I wonder if Mary felt at the tomb how I feel all day long on April first: wary, unsure, hesitant to trust anyone or anything for fear it could be a scheme.
Mary had walked to the tomb with a passal of her friends–‘cause we women travel in herds, don’t ya know (Luke 24:1-3).
I wonder if they wept when they saw. The rolled bedclothes looked especially forlorn, I’m sure. The air whistled through the hollow cave, emphasizing its emptiness. The body of her Lord, her Savior, her Friend, was gone for good.
Or so she thought.
Then she heard from a pair of men “in clothes that gleamed like lightning” the most amazing news that surely made her want to laugh and weep all at the same time (oh, we women are so good at multitasking, are we not?).
“…Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen! Remember how he spoke to you…” Luke 24: 5-6 (NASB)
From her place kneeling on the ground, head down, I wonder what Mary thought as she heard the incredible Easter news.
I think my thoughts would have been along the lines of You have got to be kidding me. Are you people blind? That tomb is empty! Empty with a capital E! And now you’re trying to tell me Jesus is alive!? Excuse me. I saw Him die. And I have a hard time believing anyone could survive that. Thank goodness I wasn’t there, eh?
But that last little line the two men said? “Remember how He spoke to you…” That brought to Mary and the other women’s minds what Jesus had indeed told them: He would be crucified… and on the third day He would rise again.
“And they remembered his words.” Luke 24:8 (NASB) I love that sentence because in it we find all kinds of faith and hope and peace.
All they did was remember Jesus didn’t lie, Jesus said He would come back, Jesus said the end of the story would only be the beginning… and then they rushed to tell the others (Luke 24:9).
The truth is I don’t care for the first of April very much because there is so much potential for things to go wrong. Jokes can backfire. Pranks can hurt. Call me cynical or too serious, but it comes down to being hurt one too many times.
But as I walk April Fools Day–and all the days this world finds me in– with a wary eye, there is Someone I can always trust.
Because on that Easter day, as He had done a thousand times before and has done a thousand times since, He proved that He was trustworthy, that He keeps His promises, that His Word is true. I can, no, I will rely on Him with all the faith of a child because I know my Savior tells the truth…and He lives.
And that is no April Fools.
