Being this is Easter and the celebration of the resurrection, I thought i would post an excerpt from the book Resurrection by Mark Rutland, presidnet of Southeastern University. For me he is a moving writer. Before reading it picture yourself on the beach with the risen Christ who has revealed himself to you and He is making some fish for you on an open fire. Have a great Easter!
Excerpt from Resurrection, by Mark Rutland
What made the difference for Simon Peter? In many respects he had treated Jesus no better than Judas did. Judas denied Christ for money. Peter did the same for cowardice. Judas lusted for gold. Pater’s passion was to save his own hide. Peter had been closer to Jesus than Judas and, unlike Judas, had loudly rejected Christ’s prophecy of denial, promising to follow his friend to the cross. Likewise a case can be made that Judas’ remorse was at least as broken-hearted as Peter’s. Peter wept. Judas hanged himself. Suicide may be over-the-top, unbalanced grief, but it hardly speaks of a cavalier spirit.
Yet it was Peter who recovered, who became the founding patriarch, who went to live on in Pentecostal power and todie for his Lord. The world knows their names, Judas the betrayer and peter the saint.
One must wonder what if Judas had just waited? Mightn’t he have encountered the resurrected Lord, heard words of grace and healing, and even resumed his place among the twelve? We will never know, of course, but Peter’s blessed encounter with Jesus in Galilee gives us room to wonder what might have been if Judas had only waited.
The spiritual deathblow for Judas was not his materialistic betrayal of the Son of God though that was sin enough. It was not even the heinous artifice of his kiss in Gethsemane. What sealed the damnation of Judas was that he cut himself off from the resurrection. Was Judas’ betrayal “unforgivable”? Perhaps, but Jesus forgave much that was unforgivable. He forgave those who slew Him, and those who mocked Him as He died. He forgave Peter for cowardice, Paul for murder, and a pitiful, unnamed woman for adultery.
Have the sins of your past slain all your hope of holiness? The resurrection is real. Does death reign in your life and relationships? The resurrection is real. You may think you have gone too far, sinned too horribly, done the unforgivable. None of what you have done can negate what He has done. You may think your sin an immovable boulder. He has rolled the stone away. You may be all alone, right now even as you read this, alone in a place of death. Look up. Lift up your eyes. Listen. He calls your name; not humanity, but your name. There, just there. Do you see Him? Arms outstretched He waits beside a charcoal fire. He waits for you. Do you fear His words of rebuke, His scowling, scolding rejection? You may think all is spoiled, never to be the same. Listen! He speaks to you.
“Come and dine. Sit here, My child, and tell me all about it. What things? Eat. Live, for I am alive.”