Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim across the English Channel in both directions. On the 4th of July in 1951, she attempted to swim from Catalina Island to the California Coast. A dense fog lay over the entire area, making it impossible for her to see land. After about 15 hours in the water and within half a mile of her goal, Chadwick gave up. Later she told a reporter, "Look, I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the land, I might have made it."
Not long afterward she attempted the feat again. Once more a misty veil obscured the coastline and she couldn’t see the shore. But this time she made it, because she kept reminding herself that land was there. She kept a vision in her mind of where she was to go. With that confidence, she bravely swam on and achieved her goal. In fact, she broke the men’s record by two hours.
You and I swim through the mist and fog of the world toward a reality a faithless world cannot see - the kingdom of God. We keep a vision of that world, of God’s kingdom, in our minds and heart.
On the day of resurrection, we have such a vision given to us after the fog of Good Friday was lifted. That vision is an empty tomb. It is into this empty tomb that you and I are invited to gaze into as we rejoice that neither the cross, nails or death kept our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ bound.
On the day of the resurrection of our Lord this world and all of its’s darkness received a most serious wound: an empty tomb - and there is nothing empty in what its meaning and hope is for us today.
In all of the history of the world, only one tomb has ever had a rock rolled before it, and a soldier guard set to watch it in order to prevent a dead man within from rising. Numbers of people gathered around the cross at Calvary to watch Jesus die and in deed, they saw him die. They watched him being taken down from the cross - they knew he was dead and they said he would not rise from the dead and still - they watched. The empty tomb of our Lord was about to administer the greatest blow of defeat to anything worldly - to anything so self-confident to think it could diminish the light of God and thwart His intended purpose for all of his creation.
We live in a culture which distorts what human life is all about. We stand amid carnival mirrors showing us that we are larger than we are, wiser than we are, higher than we are. On the day of resurrection the empty tomb crushes that worldly view and provides for us the perfect vision to keep not just in our minds but in our hearts whereby through the confidence given to us by the resurrection, we can arrive at our destiny of eternity. No matter what fog there may be in our life today, no matter what has been sealed by the seemingly immovable stone of despairity, uncertainty, or obscurity, an empty tomb awaits us to look into and see the delivering work of the Lord in giving us hope, direction, purpose and meaning.
Thomas Carlyle once wrote, "The man without a purpose or vision in this life is like a ship without a rudder." Everyone is driven by something my friends, and you and I within, have an internal compass for eternity that has been planted in our hearts by the Lord Almighty.
As the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him." This is our hope and vision.
May the blessed hope of victory over death and sin and the promise of eternal life through Christ, be our vision to guide, lead and uphold us throughout this day and the days to come. Fix your eyes upon the Lord, the author and completer of our faith.
