Spoiler Alert

Random fact: I love ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder. It’s one of my favorite shows. I also have quite a few friends that love that show, so we have to talk about it at least once a week, right?! RIGHT! (lol) Most of my friends are ridiculously busy (seriously, we all need help lol), so there are quite a few instances in which somebody will text me about the show, I won’t know what they’re talking about, or vice versa. Typically, if we find out somebody hasn’t seen the heart attack that is a Shonda Rhimes show, we leave it alone, & simply say ‘let me know when you watch it’, because we don’t want to spoil the show for them. Hoooooowever, if it’s something that we just NEED to talk about, we request permission for a spoiler alert. When I say ‘spoiler alert’, that’s my way of telling you that I’m about to tell you how the episode ends (or reveal some climatic point) before you see it for yourself. I’m going to give you the result before you realize there’s a problem. Typically, we don’t like spoiler alerts because we want to watch the story unfold and take it all it. However, today, I think I’ve got one that you’ll be glad to know….

Easter is on this Sunday (that’s not the spoiler alert by the way lol), and it’s easily the BIGGEST celebration in Christianity. Everybody loves Easter in the church. We buy new outfits for Easter. We make our (terrified) babies recite speeches for Easter. We put on plays, add extra service times, change service locations, etc. all for Easter, and all of that is justified. Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection gave us the opportunity to know God for ourselves. I’m all for it. However, I can’t help but wonder what it must’ve been like on that day. We celebrate Easter the way that we do because we know how the story ends. From our side, Sunday morning is a given. Clearly, HE ROSE!!! *cue church fit* However, our story is completely different from those that were there. Think about Mary, and imagine the pain she must’ve felt while watching her baby, her promise, die right in front of her. Let’s also look for Peter, the tough talker, the water walker….who’s now hiding because He’d denied knowing Christ and is ashamed. We know Judas committed suicide, but what about the other 10 disciples? Can you imagine what was going through their minds? “I know you said you’d live again, man, but….they’ve essentially ripped you to shreds. You don’t look like our Lord at all; you look….battered..and bloody….and broken. How could anybody come back from this?” I’d imagine that most, if not all of the people watching Him doubted that He’d actually come back from this, but Jesus stayed on the cross….because He had a spoiler alert. They were looking at Friday (or Thursday, if you want to take that route) night; He was looking at Sunday morning. 

Jesus knew how all of this would end while He was being beaten. He knew how it would end when they pierced His sides. He knew how it would end when they put the crown of thorns on His head. He knew how it would end while they mocked Him and His power. He knew how it would end when it got dark at noon because God couldn’t stand the sight of His Son covered in our sin. He had a ‘spoiler alert’ that on Sunday morning, He’d walk out of His borrowed tomb with all power in His hands. It’s not like He kept it a secret, He said it at least 3 times: ’Destroy this temple, & it’ll be back in 3 days’ (John 2:19), ‘So, I need to go to Jerusalem, and I’m going to be killed, but I’ll be back’ (Matt 16:21), ‘Just so y’all know, I’m going to be betrayed, they’re going to kill me, but I’ll be back 3 days later’ (Mark 9:30). In addition to that, HE’S DONE THIS BEFORE! Remember Jairus’ daughter? She was definitely dead, and He resurrected her (and healed the woman with 'the issue of blood' on the way). What about the ever famous Lazarus?! We all love Lazarus, right?! DEAD. For DAYS….and Jesus resurrected Lazarus without any issues. Yet…here we are…gathered in front of His weak body…wondering if He can come back from this. Here we are….wondering if He still has the power to make a way. Here we are….wondering if this is how it all ends. Here we are…wondering…what exactly He meant. Did 3 days really mean 3 days? Because…you look pretty bad Jesus, this doesn’t look good….at all, You may need a little more time to fix this. I heard You when You said it, but right now…it doesn’t look like that’s possible. This doesn’t look good. It doesn’t feel good....at all. 

These are also the thoughts that we have in our own ‘Friday nights’ of life. Those seasons in which we know what He said, and we know what He’s capable of, but at the same time…something's dying or quickly fading away right in front of us. Our families look like they’re dying. Our joy looks like it’s dying. Our relationships look like they’re dying. Our dreams look like they’re dying. I mean, it’d be easier to look forward to 'Sunday morning' if I thought I had the strength to make it to see Sunday morning. 'Sunday morning' would feel closer if I had enough money, or peace, or sanity to stretch until Sunday morning. How are we supposed to endure the pain of our crosses and make it to 'Sunday morning'?! This is too much! I can't possibly be expected to survive this! What am I really supposed to do, God?!...the same thing Jesus did: hold on to the spoiler alerts. 

The Bible is full of spoiler alerts concerning our lives: Psalm 30:5 (weeping may endure, oh but joy is coming), Romans 8:28 (all things work together for your good), Philippians 4:19 (He supplies every need), etc. Pair those with the promises He gives us personally and/or the testimonies we have of how He brought us through before, and you would think that we’d have no reason to worry! I mean, He can’t lie, right?! God said it, we believe it, and that settles it!!!!…..or does it? Many times, we want to believe in Sunday morning, we want to keep our eyes on the resurrection, but….this cross…hurts (to say the least). These nails? They don’t ease up. They say joy is coming in the morning, and weeping endures for a night, but um er uhhh….it’s noon…and pitch black. That’s our issue: we spend more time magnifying the pain of our own crosses than we do believing in the joy of our resurrection. You can’t see your own resurrection because you can’t get past your own cross, boo. Christ died, and got up, so that you could get up too. He got up to ensure that you’d have victory. He got up so that’d you know that after every death, there is a resurrection.

So while you may feel like something in your life is dying, know that in due season, He’ll resurrect it, and it’ll be better than it is right now. Stay focused on how this will end. Be encouraged; your ‘Sunday morning’ is coming. You may feel like you’re in the fight of your life right now. You may feel like you’re at the end of your rope, and that your strength is fading. You may feel like it’s time to just…give up, or that there’s no way out of your current struggle, but I’ve popped up to give you a spoiler alert, suga: you will win. He's already died for your victory, and on ‘Sunday morning’, you’ll come back better than ever. So start celebrating like you already know about your Sunday morning...on Friday night. 

Background Music: The Hill - Travis Greene; The Anthem - Todd Dulaney
**I'd also recommend You Got Up by Travis Greene, but I didn't want to have too many vids**

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