Anticipation!

A Seder dinner to remember. A time of desperate prayer. An arrest. A mock trial. An execution.

The death of a dream.

Peter, John Mark, James, Mary, Thomas. All of them huddled together in an upstairs room.

Terrified.

"Is the door locked? Double check it." What if the Jews should find them? Would they be crucified, too? They had, after all, given up everything to follow Jesus. Pinned all their hopes on him. Gave up their jobs for him. Trudged all over the countryside following him.

Sure, he did some fantastic stuff.

"Remember when he healed that blind guy? He plopped that mud in his eyes and made him wash it out? It was a cinch he was gonna wash somewhere. Why not in the pool Jesus sent him to?"

"My favorite was when he drove the demons out of that crazy man and all the pigs ran into the sea and drowned. That was a sight. But boy was the pig owner mad!"

"What about when he fed all those people? Or when he healed your mother-in-law, Peter? That was cool. Or maybe that wasn't your favorite."

Defeat. Shame. Embarrassment. Disappointment.

But they didn't know the end of the story. If they had, they would have been dancing in the streets, shouting victory and triumph to anyone in earshot.

Tomorrow. For them, a word of despair. For us, a word of hope. Tomorrow is the day we remember that HE'S ALIVE! I can just hear it.

Il est Vivant! Efon tsitre. Ele agbe! Il est resuscite! He's alive! 2000 years later, on every continent, we can rejoice that he is alive!

That's the good news. The gospel distilled.

He's alive so I can live.