Today is Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified.
Even though Jesus told His disciples, friends, and family that He would return, I don’t think any words could have comforted those who witnessed His death. Can you imagine being there when that happened – being witness to such a tragedy?
Jesus’ disciples had followed Him around for years, being inspired by His words and His actions, being a part of miracles, healings, and conversions of people to God. Then their world was shattered before their eyes by others who were afraid of this man. (So afraid, in fact, that those who crucified Him posted guards at His tomb to be sure He didn’t come back like He said He was going to.)
Jesus told His followers not to be sad or afraid because this was all part of a bigger plan. But, what kind of plan could it have been to have had your friend, mentor, and confidant tortured and killed right before your eyes?
Not only were they losing a friend, the disciples had a bigger problem: the man they believed was the Messiah was being killed. They were confused and scared. Their world was being turned upside down by His death. How could the Messiah die in such a way? Was it possible that He was not who they all thought He was? (I am sure we have all heard the term “doubting Thomas” – Thomas was one of Jesus’ disciples who wasn’t sure.)
As I said, at that moment what a tragedy this must have seemed to those who were a part of it.
For the next couple of days, His friends and family must have felt sick.
Three days later, still probably in a state of shock, some of His friends and family went back to visit the tomb that He lie in. On their way there, an angel told them of Jesus’ resurrection. They ran to the tomb to see for themselves and along their way Jesus appeared to them.
They went about and told each other what had happened – that Jesus came back to them. That he had risen from the dead.
Hearts that were broken were now healed and overjoyed! Dark sadness was replaced by the light of God’s love.
What a moment of triumph! Triumph over death. Triumph over evil. Triumph over sin.
The disciples, some of who were to become apostles, started spreading the word of Jesus. Their doubt and fear was erased and they became so filled with the knowledge that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and the Messiah that they began to preach the Good News.
The love of God through Jesus started to spread. Christianity was born!
How quickly tragedy can turn to triumph.
Just as it happened with the disciples, it is only human nature to get stuck in the moment feeling the world turn against us. We get filled with doubt, confusion, and fear. It is because of this that we can’t see beyond the moment of the tragedy.
Didn’t Jesus tell His friends and family that He would be back? Didn’t he tell them not to worry?
If only the disciples had trusted Jesus’ word that He would be back.
It took Jesus turning the tragedy of His crucifixion into the triumph of His resurrection for the disciples to really, really believe that He WAS the Messiah and trust and believe in what He told them.
Once that happened, their faith was unshakeable. So much so that many of them were themselves martyred for their beliefs and teaching.
They needed to witness Jesus’ death and resurrection before they could also come to the point of understanding how tragedy can be turned into triumph.
We, too, through the death and resurrection have witnessed tragedy turning to triumph. We don’t need for Jesus to die and be resurrected again to prove to us that He is the Son of God. It has already happened.
One of the main things we should learn from this is for us to not be “doubting Thomas’.” That we should trust in what God tells us. Jesus told His disciples He would be back. They were scared and did doubt. Nonetheless, He came back.
All throughout the Bible, God tells us to trust Him:
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” John 14:1 (NIV)
(I am sure you can find many more Bible passages that say the same.)
Isn’t that the message we should have for ourselves in our daily lives – to trust God?
God tells us all to put our faith in Him. He tells us that if we trust in Him that no harm will come to us.
If we truly believe that everything happens for a reason and everything that does happen has a God given purpose then shouldn’t we learn that all of our tragedies will also turn into magnificent triumphs?
Happy Easter everyone! – Elmer Laydon
Thank You Lord for turning tragedy into triumph in my life! Love Eric
The Lord has blessed me in so many ways, there are no words powerful enough to express my love and devotion to Him. Thank you, Lord,for the many blessings bestowed upon all of your children in this world.
I have truly experienced tragedy turning into triumph in my life. I never thought about the tragedy of Christ Crucifixion. I always thought of it as a triumph, however, this is a really awesome awakening for me. I am going to look for the triumph in every so called tragedy that comes along from now on.
God has blessed me in so many ways that I can not count them all. Even at times when things are difficult He is there. He has kept His promises to me. I know that there is always Triumph in Christ. Thanks be to God who casues me to Triumph in Him!
I DO NOT GET DAILY WORD ANYMORE,AND MY FRIEND CINDY DUKE BATES SAID TO ME SHE DONT EITHER,PLEASE RESEND TO US EVERYDAY
Jesus triumphly won upon the cross over sin, death and the grave. Because of His victory, I too by faith can triumph over my circumstances.
I have been blessed too many times to count….Miracles do happen!
Early detection saved my life twice…God and I found it not the doctors…after all God is my director…..Then my heart went bad…The Lord saw fit to put me in a position to find it, before it killed me. ANd I had it for 5 years….
God Bless you what perfect timing …. this spoke volumes to me, for life is all about triump over tragedy, turning the nagativity of this world into a positive out come all in the name of the lord.
I don’t know where to start. These are the exact words I put on my body about 7 years ago when my life seemed to be a tragic mess. I remember telling people that some day this will be true. Allthough it has taken me longer then I planned, a triumph over a long fought war has finally came true. Through the grace on God, I can now look for more things to triumph over in life. The Whisper of God has transformed my life when it was needed the most. I look forward to reading the post everyday.
My story begins on November 19, 2004……the day my Daddy passed away. I was his Heath caregiver. I had taken care of Daddy for 4 years in his home as I lived there with him. I was able to keep Daddy out of a nursing home as was his wish. In the afternoon my little brother, Gary, found Daddy passed away in his own bed. Daddy went peacefully. After mortuary came to remove Daddy’s body from the house I started to “check list”, mentally, what I had done that day for Daddy and wondered if I had “missed” anything regarding his care. I was up all night, sitting on the edge of the pool crying and knowing that I had missed something. I had such GUILT in my heart that I had MISSED something that Daddy could have needed and he would still be alive if it were not for me.
The next day, I went down to the corner store where Daddy used to visit often when he was not ill. Daddy had become friends with the owner of this store, his name is Mikey. I had decided that I had better go down to the store and tell Mikey about Daddy’s passing before he found out from someone else. It was rather early in the morning when I went down to the store as I did not sleep all night long and there were many people in the store. There is a hospital 4 blocks from the store and the store was full of employees from the hospital getting their “lunch” and “treats” for the day. I wanted to wait until all the customers were gone to tell Mikey the news.
In the back of the store I noticed this man “taking in” all of the action in the front of the store. He seemed fascinated with the conversation, exchange of money, what people were buying. This man had the look of Santa Claus without the beard, a very robust man, quite large. This man had noticed that the people that were coming into the store were not smiling so this man came to the front of the store and made this statement to all of the people in the store. “What, no smiles for this day? I see no one smiling !!! ” Well………I could feel my face get red as a beet and I became angry and I yelled at this man and told him I had NO REASON to smile, that I had lost my Daddy the day before. This was NOT the way I wanted Mikey to hear this news, over my STUPID anger. All the customers in the store give me their condolences and left.
This man however, asked if he could talk to me. I said sure…….I.have no idea why I went with this person but I felt safe with this man even though I had NEVER seen this man in my life. He took me to the back of the store and he said to me; “I would like to ask you 3 questions if I may.” I said, “sure.” He said to me; “There are 3 things people pray for before they die, did you know this?” I answered; “No sir, I did not.” He replied; “Did your Daddy want for anything in the way of clothes, shoes, pajamas, things for the house, etc.?” I replied; “No sir.” He said; “THAT IS NUMBER ONE!” Then he asked me; “Did your Daddy have problems getting his medication that he needed, was he able to go into a hospital when he needed to, did he have someone around him all the time to CARE for him and LOVE him?” I replied; “Yes sir, me and my brother Gary.” He said; “THAT IS NUMBER TWO” He then asked me this question; “Did your Daddy die in his own bed with his loving family around him and he looked peaceful at the time of his passing?” I said; “Yes sir.” He said; “THAT IS NUMBER THREE” He said to me; “You see, your Father was BLESSED that all 3 of his prayers were answered. Most people only get one prayer answered but your Daddy had all 3 answered. If it were not for you, your Daddy would not have lived as long as he did. Your care of him was perfect and you have no need to feel guilty over your care for him. You did NOTHING wrong and you MISSED nothing in his care. It was your Daddy’s time to go.” Well, with that I started to cry and this man took me into his arms and the LOVE that I felt was overwhelming. I had felt nothing like it in this world. I wanted to stay in this mans arms forever. After I had cried myself out and got this mans shirt very wet he told me to go on living now and be happy. He wanted me to be proud of the care that I gave to my Daddy. With that, this man walked out of the store, never to be seen again. Mikey, the store owner, had never seen this man before and has not seen him since. I have to say that I was in the presence of an ANGEL that came to this Earth to comfort me and explain to me that I had done nothing wrong in Daddy’s care. This ANGEL gave me the love that I needed at that time in my life and I will always remember how I felt in that ANGELS arms. I also know this was an ANGEL as I did not tell anyone how Daddy had passed but this ANGEL knew. This ANGEL also knew that all 3 prayers were answered for Daddy, he just wanted to point it out to me. After my encounter with this ANGEL I felt much better knowing that I had done everything that I knew what to do to care for Daddy and that it truly was his time to go. No more GUILT. I could breathe again. It was an encounter I will NEVER, NEVER forget.
I have to say, this was TRULY a tragedy that turned into a triumph and this story is 100% true.