Sunday's Coming (Part 1)

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. (Luke 23:44-49 NIV).

In 1948 Harry S. Truman ran for re-election as the 33rd President of the United States. It was Truman’s first time to run for president. He became president when FDR died 83 days into his 4th term. Truman was running against Thomas Dewey and every public opinion poll predicted that Dewey would win by a landslide. Newsweek Magazine polled fifty top political experts throughout the country and they gave Dewey 366 electoral votes, more than 100 that he needed to win! The Ft. Lauderdale Daily News flatly announced that Dewey would get at least 62% of the vote. Life Magazine featured a full-page picture of Dewey with the caption, "The New President Travels by Ferryboat over the Broad Waters of San Francisco Bay.” The Kiplinger letter, already on the desks of leading businessmen, described the economic policies of the new Dewey administration. And, the Manchester Guardian’s final election report was titled, “Harry S. Truman – A Study of a Failure." The Chicago Tribune had already published as their headline, “Dewey Defeats Truman.” On election night while Dewey was in New York working on the final draft of his acceptance speech, Harry Truman was in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, taking a Turkish bath, eating a ham sandwich and drinking a glass of milk, watching and listening to the election returns. He later said, “At 6 O’clock I was defeated, I was defeated at 10 O’clock, at midnight I heard the report that I was 1,200,000 ahead but was still undoubtedly beaten.” Truman went to bed and was awakened at 4 AM by a secret service man who told him he was ahead by over 2,000,000, but the commentator continued to say he couldn’t see how Truman could be elected. Despite all the commentators, newspapers and all the polls that said he didn’t even have the remotest chance of winning, Harry S. Truman was still the elected choice of the people as their president. What looked like a sure defeat turned into a great victory.

The same was true of Christ’s victory at Calvary. When many viewed what transpired on that “Not So" Good Friday, 2,000 years ago, while Jesus hung on the cross and his opponents were planning their victory party, writing the headlines for the Jerusalem newspaper, "Jesus Defeated at Calvary" – Sunday was coming!

What on Friday looked to be a terrible defeat turned out to be the greatest victory of all time. The resurrection was the moment the world had been waiting for, and it was the thing that the world so desperately needed. The resurrection is why Jesus came to the earth and it is because of His resurrection that we who have faith in Him can look forward to His Second Coming. The resurrection is the most powerful event in all of human history. It has the power to transform our lives. Jesus was not resurrected from the dead for us to remain the same, for our lives to go on as usual. He came, He died, and He rose from the dead to transform us! In the next few mornings of this Easter Week, we’ll see a few of those ways He can transform us. Today, rejoice that the resurrection is a past event, already accomplished on our behalf. He is risen! No matter how many people tell you it’s just Friday, Sunday’s Coming!