I have a friend who not too long ago was messed up in substance abuse problems. I didn’t know him really well at the time, but since then he has become a good friend. He really didn’t know how bad things were getting and his life was beginning to unravel quickly. Until one day he was struck by a car. His injuries were quite substantial and it took him a long time to recover. While he lay on that hospital bed though, he had a good chance to review the events of his life that led up to where he was. He knew the poor choices he had made and more importantly he saw how weak his faith had become. We like to say that sometimes God has to lay people on their backs before they’ll look up to him. In his case that’s exactly what happened. After he recovered from his injuries, the change that took place in his life was remarkable. It was a change in direction that could only happen through the power of Christ’s resurrection.

Sometimes we need that, too. In fact, we need that every day. Think about how upset we get over things in this life: bills, our jobs, our families, our friends, our faith. We get wrapped up in all the details, we think we have to control everything. We want to be in control and something goes wrong, something unexpected happens and then we lose hope. "I thought I had it all figured out, everything was going so smoothly…" Our perspective is often a very selfish one. We want things to go our way. “Jesus I thought you were going to…” “But Jesus I prayed that…” And it doesn’t happen how we want it to, and we start walking our own sad road, our faces downcast, wondering if Jesus is really all he’s cracked up to be.

So Jesus intervenes. He rose, and his resurrection changes our perspective. Think about all the promises God has made in the Old Testament. God promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to raise up a Messiah. God promised King David to put one of his heirs on the throne eternally. God showed the Israelites how blood would be shed for the forgiveness of sins day-after-day in the Temple. All of these are for us, too. They aren’t just casual things to know in Bible class. Each one of these is a checklist of God’s promises that are fulfilled by the resurrection. Each one is another way of God saying to you and me, “See my plan worked. I do love you, I do care for you, I do forgive you.” Christ changes our direction by changing our perspective from our own earthly selfish one, to a new spiritual perspective. We see how God has kept his promises, we see how our sins have been forgiven, we see how God has given us the gift of eternal life. The resurrection proves this is true.

Think about how sad we would be without the resurrection. We wouldn’t know where to go. But when Christ turns our sadness into joy, we turn right around and in joy-filled faith, follow Christ. 

These aren’t empty emotions we’re talking about here. These aren’t the kinds of emotions that fly away when the song has ended or the movie is over. These are the kind of emotions that come from the truths of God’s Word. This is the joy that is true no matter how happy or sad I feel. If I am sad, then my joy is found in Christ’s resurrection and that gives me hope. If I am happy, then my joy is made complete in Christ’s resurrection and I look forward to my own resurrection with even more joy. These are the emotions that are stirred when we see the empty tomb. It's the change in attitude that only Christ can bring about.