When Jesus set His face to go to Jerusalem, He knew that He was going to be betrayed, scourged, crucified, and buried. And when He had suffered what man was going to do to Him, He was fully prepared for what God was going to do for Him—raise Him from the dead. That resurrection was something He saw clearly in the Scriptures, and which His disciples did not, even when He explained it to them. They had trouble with the concept after He had risen, and was explaining it to them. But the reality of this new resurrection life finally sank in, and they scattered around the world, preaching the resurrection, preaching the kingdom that had this resurrection for a cornerstone.
As we approach the celebration of Easter next week, remember that each Lord’s Day is a mini-Easter. We meet on the first day of the week, and we have done so for thousands of years, because Jesus Christ established a new heaven and a new earth, and He entered into His rest on this day. This is such a remarkable event, we are called to commemorate it on a weekly basis.
This means that as we look forward to Easter, we should not be trying to duplicate the despondency and small faith exhibited by the disciples. Easter is coming, and we look forward to it, craning our necks. We can see what is going to happen because we have celebrated it a number of times already this year. We stand on the resurrection of Palm Sunday so that we might look forward in faith to the resurrection of Easter. We stand on the resurrection so that we might see the resurrection.