audiences or the public, I was trying to do enough to please God so that God would move.
When God didn ' t move the way I had hoped, I thought I would move toward God. My wife and a group of friends and I had the opportunity to take a tour of Israel and jumped at the chance. One of my wife’ s friends was giving me a side-eye the entire time, thinking we were embarking on an awfully elaborate trip just to keep up appearances and snap pics for the‘ gram. She was justified: she supported my wife after I revealed to her that I was out in the clubs popping benzos and drinking while on tour. All I could do was take the dirty looks and thank God my wife had a friend who wanted to protect her. All I could do was make the choice every day to be the man who my wife deserved— trustworthy, repentant, loving, considerate. I really had no leg to stand on. I was flying Israel to find God, to find hope.
I think of Moses, entreating God to be present for him and all the people so that they could cross safely into the promised land. God was frustrated with the stubbornness of the Israelites and restrained Himself from just starting over with Moses alone. In Exodus 33, God relented and said He ' d be present for the people. Then Moses asked, " Now show me Your glory." God said, " You can ' t see My face and live,” but hid Moses in a rock cleft and showed him His back.
I wanted God to show me His glory.
We saw where Moses led the people. We saw the place where Jesus taught, and where He was baptized. And then we got to the garden tomb. It was empty. This is God ' s glory: that through Jesus, the Israelites did behold God ' s face and lived.
This is God ' s glory: that Jesus ' s face, His body, cannot be found buried within any rock, because He has risen. And this is my hope: resurrections of relationships, purpose, and trust can still happen in my life— our lives— because Jesus has already defeated death. He has set us free. And He is God Still With Us. Yahweh answered Moses’ s prayer with Jesus.
We wept tears of joy and prayed and worshiped at that empty tomb. Amazingly, my wife ' s friend and I reconciled right there at the tomb. I commemorated the hope I found with a mikvah in the Jordan River. And because we Black and we out here, we did the wobble on a boat cruise on the Sea of Galilee. The empty tomb is worthy of a praise dance!
“ I wanted God to show me His glory.”
I stay in awe of the fact that the Second Person of the Trinity decided to know and forevermore inhabit the vulnerability of humanity. He grew in the womb of a young woman. He learned to walk. talk, and love other people as a man. He learned the hardships of the people in His community and lived as a Jewish man in a territory occupied by Romans. Life for Him was no crystal stair. He knows what it is to live here.
The suffering of Yeshua Is also a preview for us. The ridicule, the rejection, the abandonment, the injustices, the humiliation— Jesus endured them all. Yeshua was willing to sacrifice His life on our behalf. He understands our lives and He is well acquainted with death.
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