Jesus Christ was captured, condemned, brutalised and... - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here.
Mark 16:6

Jesus Christ was captured, condemned, brutalised and crucified. But why didn’t He fight back? Why did He accept the gross injustice without protest and finally die an agonising, shameful death? In the end, He lay in the grave – and with Him hopes, expectations, dreams and longings. Everything seemed over and done with – on Good Friday.

On Sunday, “very early in the morning”, some women come to the tomb. They have spices with them and want to anoint the Lord’s body. It was a last service of love, so to speak – certainly with sadness and tears and many questions! But as they enter the tomb, an angel is sitting there and says to them, “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here” (v. 6).

Jesus is alive, He is risen! What a message! Christians are connected with a living Lord – with One who has risen from the dead and has ascended into heaven and who will one day come again in power and glory to reign.

The Bible says: Jesus was born, died and rose again and is coming again; the Jews, on the other hand, claim: Jesus died – but did not rise; and Islam says: Jesus did not die – and therefore cannot have risen! If the statement of the Bible is true – and it is true! – then the other assertions are false.

“But now Christ is risen from the dead.” There were many eyewitnesses to His empty tomb. Besides, what good would it do if men preached the gospel at the risk of their lives, but dead men were not raised? They would be the most miserable of all men (1 Corinthians 15:19–20, 32).

Today’s reading: Deuteronomy 16:18-17:7 · Matthew 27:1-10