Text: Mark 16:1–8; Luke 24:1–12 This morning’s lesson isn’t going to have nice little anecdotes or metaphorical stories to go along with it. The facts of the lesson are so compelling they don’t need additional stories to get the points across. There are moments in history that change everything. A declaration of war can change nations. A signed treaty can change borders. A diagnosis can change a family. A phone call can change a life. But there has never been a moment in all of human history more important than the moment when a group of grieving women came to a tomb just outside Jerusalem… and found it empty. That tomb had been occupied by the body of Jesus of Nazareth and as we all know, he had died very publicly. • He had been crucified on a hill outside the city walls. • His body had been taken down after life had left it. • He had been wrapped in linen. • He had been buried in a brand new tomb and a great stone rolled into place with a Roman seal had been secured to it with Roman ...
The text we are going to be using as the basis of the lesson is taken from the Old Testament book of 2 Kings 7 and in particular verse 9. To set the scene of this story, the Israelites are holed up in the city of Samaria, under siege by the Syrians. For our purposes our story begins in verse 3 with four lepers.5 There are moments in Scripture when a single sentence carries enormous weight. This (verse 9) is one of them. Four lepers—outcasts, starving, and desperate. They rationalize that if they, being lepers, stay at the city gates they will die of starvation, and if they go into the city of Samaria there is no food to be found there either so they will die there. BUT, if they go to the Syrian camp there is a slight possibility they may get food and the worst that can happen is they will be killed there as well, at least there might be a chance they will live. So they approach the Syrian camp only to discover that the enemy army has fled. The Syrian camp is abandoned. Food, clothing, ...