The man looks furtively down the alleyway, making sure no Roman soldiers are present.
He stretches out one foot from under his robe and draws a fish shape with the edge of the sandal, glancing knowingly at the man and woman he has just encountered.
The two nod and smile acknowledgement before he quickly scuffs the dirt, wiping out the symbol.
“He is risen,” the woman whispers.
“He is risen indeed!” the first man fervently whispers back. He turns to climb the narrow stairs to an upper room, his new companions following him.
Imagine being a believer in Jesus when He walked the earth over two thousand years ago. Picture yourself right after His crucifixion, your hopes dashed.
You thought He was the one—that He would finally liberate your people. You were certain He would crush the cruel oppressors who’ve kept you under their heels for far too long.
His words were so wise, His power so unique—surely, He would conquer Israel’s enemies and establish Himself as king!
But now He is dead—and with Him, your dreams.
Your world has been turned upside down and inside out. What you thought was reality has turned into a cruel joke.
You huddle in secret with the tiny band of believers, your hearts all pounding, sure that your fate is sealed.
Instead of looking forward to a hopeful future in a new and glorious kingdom, you stare at the grim prospect of your own gruesome death.
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For Christians today, it’s easy to dismiss or overlook the depth of discouragement that those ancient believers experienced just before Resurrection Sunday.
But they didn’t know the end of the story like we do today.
They didn’t understand that all the awful things Jesus endured were in fact part of God’s great plan of redemption for all our sakes.
You see, the disciples’ dreams were far too small.
They wanted a Messiah who would win their political freedom. They wanted to rise as victors over the tyrannical nation that ruled them.
They wanted to win over the bully.
What they failed to comprehend was that God’s dream was much bigger than a temporal victory for Israel over a particular earthly oppressor.
God’s dream was to conquer the big-picture enemies of sin and death forever, and to make eternal life available to those from every nation, tribe, people and language (Rev. 7:9).
The disciples’ limited dreams were based on the wrong assumptions—and even when Jesus forewarned them of the events to come, they couldn’t seem to hear Him.
When Jesus rose from the dead and instructed the first eyewitnesses (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and other women with them) to go report His Resurrection to the apostles,
“…their words struck the apostles as nonsense, and they didn’t believe the women.” --Luke 24:11.
Depression fueled the apostles’ cynicism—as did personal prejudice.
Thankfully, the story doesn’t end there.
We know Peter and John checked things out and found the empty tomb just as the women had described it.
We know Jesus appeared to the eleven, and then to hundreds of disciples who witnessed His ascension.
We know those frightened, dismayed disciples who hid from the Romans after Jesus’ death were transformed into men and women of astonishing, death-defying courage after His Resurrection.
Once they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, their understanding radically changed.
Their small-minded dream for Israel—the dream that died with Jesus’ death—was resurrected into God’s vision for all of humanity.
So how does the truth of the Resurrection impact you today?
How does it apply to the lifesaving, life-transforming, soul-saving work you do on behalf of the preborn and their mothers and fathers?
In your life and in your ministry, you have dreams.
The question is, are your dreams as big as God’s dreams for what He wants to do in and through you?
Tweet This: The question is, are your dreams as big as God’s dreams for what He wants to do in and through you?
That’s a tough question—after all, we are limited human beings.
Maybe, like those early disciples, your dream is too small.
Maybe discouragement or depression has smothered your faith. Perhaps cynicism or prejudice has blinded your vision and crushed your hope.
Maybe you need to be reminded that God is “… able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Eph. 3:20).”
Just because we see the Resurrection story clearly in hindsight doesn’t mean we can figure out our stories today.
We are small. We need help. We are fragile vessels in the service of an all-powerful God.
Perhaps it’s time to lay your little dream down at Jesus’ feet and ask Him to resurrect it into what He has in mind instead.
Here’s how I put it in Unleashing Your Courageous Compassion:
“God is in the resurrection business. And resurrection always opens new dimensions.
When Jesus appeared to His disciples after He was raised from the dead, He ate fish with them, yet He could walk through walls.
The same, only better. That’s what resurrection looks like.”
As we celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection, may the Lord resurrect your dreams.
May He take what has died and raise it up into something much greater than you ever imagined it could be.
Like the ancient disciples, may you be transformed by the power of the Spirit and the reality of the hope we have in Christ.
May the Easter celebration be a reminder that you serve the Author of Life.
