Don't Cry for Me When I'm Gone

One pivotal event changed everything.

We say that something is a pivotal day or pivotal event when it changes the course of history. On April 1775, the Colonials engaged the British army at Lexington and Concord. Ralph Waldo Emerson called it the “shot heard ‘round the world,” and it was the beginning of the Revolutionary War that ended in America gaining its independence. 

When Confederate troops fired on Federal forces stationed at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, in April of 1861, war broke out that resulted in the loss of 600,000 American lives. 

Concord and Lexington led to the founding of the greatest republic in the history of the world, and the Civil War resulted in the abolition of the horrific practice of slavery. Pivotal events, indeed.

But there’s another event that, when compared to all others in human history, makes them all pale in comparison. This event not only changed the course of human history but altered eternity as well. I am speaking, of course, about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 

John records that Mary went to the tomb three days after Jesus’ death. She expected to find Jesus’ corpse where it had been laid three days before. However, what she found upon reaching the tomb shocked her. When she encountered the angels at the tomb:

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 

—John 20:13-14

It was a pivotal day for those who knew Jesus. The apostles were transformed from sniveling, petty followers into bold ambassadors for the kingdom that Jesus had just ushered in. Only 50 days after his death, we find the apostles in Jerusalem standing before the same crowd who had called for his murder a little more than a month earlier now preaching the resurrection of Jesus and leveling accusations against the people.

“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”

—Acts 2:22-24

Peter! Only 50 days earlier he had cursed and denied that he even knew Jesus, and now he was preaching his name before the same bunch whose hostility toward Jesus had led them to demand his death.

And the crowd who was screaming for his death a few weeks earlier? Well, thousands came forward and were baptized in Jesus’ name.

Yes! The death of Jesus was pivotal because it is by his stripes that we are now healed (Isaiah 53:5). But it was his resurrection that proved that he was worthy to bear our sins. It proved that he was an acceptable sacrifice for our iniquities. By the power of the resurrection, we can be confident that Jesus has the power to forgive sin.

I, for one, am glad that he was raised. Living in doubt wondering whether or not Jesus really was from the Father would be a miserable life. But now I know. Only a holy and omnipotent god like God could reverse the laws of nature and give life to a dead man.

And now I am confident that he will raise my lowly dead carcass from the six-foot hole they’ll place me in when I die. Hey, he proved once that he could do it, and that’s enough for me.

I’m looking forward to the day of his appearing. That’s why I tell people, “Don’t cry for me when I’m gone. I’ll be way better off.”

The resurrection of Jesus? Now that was a truly pivotal day! It truly was!